Team size: 700

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The Orange legal teams are involved in securing the group business, which means essentially providing legal advice, drafting documents, and performing litigation activities. This covers the wide scope of the group business, meaning the B2C and B2B activities (contracting, marketing, litigation, and day-to-day business) but also at a corporate level (M&A, company law, financing, HR, personal data, purchasing, competition, and regulation). Recent transactions include M&A in Belgium, constitution of a joint venture in Spain, extinguishing the banking activities in France and taking part in discussions with the French telecommunications regulator “Arcep.”

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

We have recently simplified the treatment of invoices from our external lawyers based upon the accounting ERP tool to make the process leaner and decrease the time spent on the whole process (delegation, validation, verification, ok-to-pay and data visualisation follow-up processes). In the legal field, we have worked with a start-up on a simplified corporate approvals process (board approvals).

How do you see the general counsel role evolving in France over the next five-ten years?

The managerial role of the general counsel shall increase, meaning they shall demonstrate technical skills but also great leadership

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

I am careful with respect to technological advancements, as lawyers are not the most advanced in technology. The setting-up of processes and reporting (through technological tools) will be key in the coming years as this will be help us with benchmarking.

What are some of the main trends in the industry sector you work in in France?

The main issue we are facing is the high level of competition and the slowdown of the economy that leads us to a lack of growth in the telecommunications industry.