About

In a company with a €3bn turnover and over 5,000 employees, it is Matthias Kettschau’s particular goal, to ‘get a deep understanding of the company’s operations’ and for the legal department to be ‘part of a cross-sector team rather than act as internal advisor’. It is a given for him to attend meetings jointly with other departments as soon as employment law issues are involved. Highlights have been the successful integration of 1,200 employees into one of the company’s subsidiaries in 2008 as well as recent negotiations and the contract signing regarding a new company wide tariff as part of a modified implementation of the ERA (Entgeltrahmenabkommen der Metall- und Elektroindustrie), the tariff agreement of the metal and electrical industry in 2012. A particular challenge in the transition from law firm to in-house in his view is being able to let go of ‘the habitual focus on legal matters in the context of a mandate’ and to instead focus on ‘finding a comprehensive solution that incorporates all of the company’s departments’. He values the ability of a corporate counsel to design and implement structures over a longer period of time, something that ‘is hardly ever possible when working for a law firm’. From external advisors, he expects the ability to understand ‘a company’s particular structure and vibe which all have some bearing on the advice needed’. Many firms have a ‘very strong focus on the academic quality of the advice and not on the question how it can be put into practice’.