Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself?

The Covid-19 crisis had a severe impact on our operations across the world, which led to several financial restructurings in the group. Most recently, the war in Ukraine led us to further restructuring, including implementing one of the first accelerated safeguard proceedings in France.

What do you predict will be the biggest change to the legal market in France, in the next few years?

The role of the general counsel within French companies is evolving, expanding beyond the usual legal topics, including matters such as ESG. I expect this tendency will continue and accelerate in the coming years.

Have any recent political, economic or regulatory changes impacted your work? How are you dealing with this?

The rapidly evolving compliance environment has led to a need for enhanced KYC monitoring. We’ve recently kicked off a project to implement a modern IT solution to ensure our KYC data is constantly up to date.

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you care about, and why?

France is late to adopt a modern approach to the in-house practice of law, notably by recognising legal privilege for qualified lawyers exercising in-house, which would bring additional legal security around advice to business operations and dealings with third parties, including opposing counsel. It is good to see the increased debate around this issue; however, the progress is slow.