About

Led by group general counsel Wolfgang Haas, who is directly supported in the department by senior vice presidents Matt Lepore and Stefan John, globally BASF’s in-house legal team consists of over 200 individuals with over 50 based in Germany. Haas is extremely pleased with the team’s current state, stating that it is ‘a truly global team with a shared common culture and professional approach that has allowed international success and innovation’. He mentions a number of the most important of these: ‘Firstly, we have created the company’s first ever global panel of law firms to help us with global work. Secondly, we are launching a global contract lifecycle management system that will redefine how we contract at BASF across the globe. Thirdly, recognising the value of diversity and inclusion, we are building an internal structure to foster this and drive greater diversity throughout our legal department. Fourthly, we have reorganised our legal department around the principle that the best lawyers know their businesses, and towards this have created division general counsels for each of our 12 global operating divisions and provided teams and resources to deliver legal services to businesses quickly. Finally, last year we developed a global risk management system so we can look across our business for compliance risks’. On the transaction front, Haas reports similarly impressive achievements. ‘This year’, he says, ‘I am particularly proud that we closed on our single largest transaction ever – purchasing major parts of Bayer’s seed businesses for several billion euros. This was an incredibly complicated transaction handled by legal colleagues around the globe’. Unsurprisingly, Haas sums up the BASF legal team incredibly positively: ‘We have a terrific legal team at BASF. Our colleagues are hard-working and innovative, creative and highly experienced. And while each region like Germany has unique qualities and approaches, I believe our global approach alone is innovative’.