Philippe Jutard relates an interesting story from his formative years as an in-house lawyer at ELF UK (now Total), which gives insight into his outlook and approach. ‘The first contract I had to draft for the company was about buying mud for a drilling program’, he explains, ‘the problem being that I couldn’t figure out why we had to buy mud.

I went to see an engineer to get an explanations, and they admitted it was the very first time he had a lawyer coming to ask for explanations, and spent over an hour explaining his job and the issues. Since then, I always go and ask the specialists about the issues at stake in order to try and bring value added to my work. I also strongly encourage my team to go out of their office and understand other people’s jobs’. This approach has proven successful throughout his career, translating to a vast number of successful projects he has worked on. Jutard mentions his role in ‘the negotiation of a major BOT contract in Iran in the late 1990’s amidst a very complex political situation as part of the reopening of Iran to foreign investment after decades’ as a particularly important historical transaction he was involved in.

He can also point to contemporary examples, citing ‘the new financial arrangement we negotiated last year, composed of an amortisable term loan, a bilateral amortisable loan, a Euro private placement and a US private placement’. Jutard’s vast experience as an in-house lawyer has given him a clear understanding of what makes a good in-house counsel, and he has the following advice for others wishing to emulate his success: ‘Get out of your office and go outside your comfort zone’.