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?

Working under the strict constraints of the Covid-19 period has led us to digitise the entire contract review process from the first day of negotiations to the full execution of any agreement. We implemented a digital contract review process acting as a ticketing system which helped us in many ways to work as a team, faster and more efficiently. Agreement requests are registered in a digital tool which is then tracked every step of the way. This way, the entire legal team always knows the status of any agreement, while reporting to management on the status of agreements has become easier with the push of a button. Thus, delegating and monitoring every step of any given contract negotiation has greatly increased the efficiency of our work.

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

When you work in a large company, you are involved in many different deals and transactions daily. Our legal team has worked on many complex and challenging projects. Many of the issues we deal with are of unique importance regardless of their economic scope and regardless of the parties involved. Some examples include safeguarding the company’s expansion and investment strategy, cross-border sale and purchase of industrial machinery and equipment, complex basic service agreements dealing with biotechnology issues, and real estate transactions for new industrial facilities.

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?

As head of the legal department, I am also responsible for compliance issues. Our company values are based on ethical criteria and guide us in all our decisions. It is important to us that all our partners share the same values. If this is not possible then we will reconsider our selection of external counsel.