About

Sébastien Niogret joined Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, as a trainee in 2002. After only a few months the then group general counsel offered him the opportunity to join the team as junior legal counsel. Over the next seven and half years Niogret took on several positions in the corporate legal department, until in 2009 when he was promoted to chief legal counsel France with the aim to effectively bring legal support to French business activities. Niogret overcame internal challenges by ensuring the business and management understood the importance of legal support in day to day business, simultaneously gaining their confidence. ‘Today we are recognised as a competent and reliable function and we are fully integrated into the business decision making process of the company’. Explaining his approach, Niogret adds that ‘it is essential to build a relationship based on trust and communication, but that is not only valid for the top management. It is key to build the same relationship at every stage of the company. This is key for an efficient and well integrated legal function’. In keeping with this pragmatic, flexible and responsive approach, Niogret helps guide the strategic direction of the company striving to identify, monitor and minimise legal risks in the various areas in which the company pervades. ‘Our major value is in risk anticipation and reduction’, he says. Niogret is also relishing the opportunity to implement upcoming French contract law changes set to create uncertainty in their contractual relationship until a stable new jurisprudence is achieved.