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? 

In both groups of companies that I oversee (Grivalia Hospitality Group and Grivalia Management), we have always maintained a rather small, lean, but fully flexible and adaptive team with the aim of responding swiftly and providing value-adding legal support in line with the companies’ business objectives. The team is supported by trusted external legal counsel in complex transactions; in such transactions it assumes a full project management role effectively aligning the external partners with the companies’ business strategy and goals. 

Given the high volume and diversity of day-to-day legal affairs that we must attend to, especially in Grivalia Hospitality Group that comprises more than 50 companies, our goal is to optimise performance with the least possible consumption of human resources and having effective control of legal expenses in line with the companies’ budget.  This is obviously an ongoing task, and we are always looking for new ways to enhance our performance. 

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this? 

We have chosen a lean internal structure which in turn makes the selection of the external providers crucial to achieving our legal goals and supporting the corporate objectives accordingly. We need to rely on our external partners ‘with eyes closed’, which means that they need to have gained our trust working by our side over the years. Indeed, we consider them to be valuable business partners and opt to forge long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial. This means that, inevitably, we have over time chosen to work with specific law firms and consultants in general based on strict criteria, whilst such firms that we work with meet the requirements set out in our applicable Code of Conduct, conflict of interest policy, as well as all policies and procedures that our companies have established overall with regards to the selection of suppliers.  

Furthermore, our legal department proceeds with an annual evaluation and rating of all its external partners aiming at qualitative improvement and the attainment of more efficient partnerships.  

Over time, our department has established a reliable network of close partners who are fully familiar with the groups’ standards and requirements, while, at the same time, we are pursuing new partnerships, to expand this network for the long term while fully adhering to our principles.