Group General Counsel | Orange
Cédric Testut
Group General Counsel | Orange
How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
A manager must be working in proximity with the teams during periods of instability or crises, reassuring and giving clear strategic directions, but also ensuring leaving nobody on the sidewalk and that everybody is working in that direction. This means being very present and communicating to the teams regularly, clarifying the objectives that must be realistic.
What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?
The most important ones over the past months would be the creation of the joint venture MasOrange in Spain and the closure of Orange Bank.
What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?
Telecom business embeds sustainability practices for years now. We have a legal team dedicated to CSR that is working with all the legal teams and the businesses impacted, the role of the GC being supporting this.
What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?
We have set up internally a Legal Operations department working alongside with the group technical/technological experts to find tools/solutions (not only digital ones) that would help us accompanying the transformation of the business. Main objectives being simplification and reducing legal workload. We have not yet found in the emerging technologies something that would be a game changer for our day-to-day work, although they help.
How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?
Legal teams are treated the same way as the company’s staff, so there is nothing done in addition to all the measures taken by the company.
In your opinion, what are the main trends that are salient in your country currently (these can be legal, political, economy or business-based)?
Orange operates in many countries, France obviously but also in Europe and Middle East & Africa. Regarding France, but that is also true while little different for out other geographies, as we are in both a B2B and a B2C businesses, harsh competition and purchasing power difficulties has increased and is critical.
Group general counsel | Orange