Team size: Seven

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

The most significant transaction that my team has recently been involved in was clearly the acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group by Adevinta, the largest Classifieds deal in history. Remarkably, the deal itself took place entirely remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of eBay Classifieds Group’s central legal team, my team was involved in a wide range of matters related to the $9.2bn transaction, from due diligence through today’s integration with the Adevinta legal team. Right now, we are in the process of designing the new global Adevinta legal team, which brings together two high-class legal organisations. Working together as one team, we are taking the opportunity to rethink the way we work to create a world-class legal team that draws on best practices to best serve our clients and leverages future-proof, scalable technologies.

As part of this process, my team has been involved in several legal integration workstreams, such as change management, implementing a new contract management and e-billing system for the global legal team, and conducting qualitative and quantitative surveys of key stakeholders to gather data on various aspects of legal support.

In addition, my team also supports local initiatives resulting from Adevinta’s acquisition, for example the rebranding of eBay Kleinanzeigen and various projects and commercial agreements related to the untangling of eBay classifieds group’s systems and technologies, that were deeply connected to its parent company. Besides that, some of the most significant projects that we have recently been supporting are those related to the transactional transformation of our Classifieds businesses.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The pandemic has obviously tremendously affected the way we work over the last two years. Working in an entirely remote work environment required new ways of working, new tools, a new approach for meetings and team interaction. I think that in my team, we have taken a more trial-and-error approach than ever and have learned fast from failures. In many ways, we learned to operate in a much more agile way than before and continue to do so today.

Most importantly, we had to ensure that we maintained our core approach and strength as a legal team. It was key that we continue to be seen as a valuable partner, instead of a bottleneck; that we act as a business leader as well as a lawyer, not just providing pure legal advice, but being consulted by business partners and executives on key business decisions.

How much influence do you, as a general counsel, have on the diversity and inclusion policies of your organisation?

As a member of leadership teams at central and local levels, I play an active role in shaping corporate strategy as well as key policies, such as the DEI policy. At Adevinta, this topic is on the agenda across all broader leadership teams, which includes decisions on strategy and roadmap, as well as dedicated workshops for leaders. From my perspective, one of the responsibilities of the general counsel is to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and that employees are encouraged to speak up.