About

The Whirlpool EMEA legal team is part of the Whirlpool Corporation global law department, which embodies the mission and vision to be ‘one team, recognised for delivering competitive advantage by driving outcomes that protect the company and advance our strategy globally’. This is according to vice president and general counsel for EMEA Tanya M. Jaeger de Foras. While today, the EMEA legal team operates largely as a standalone and full service law department within the EMEA business, it collaborates ever more closely with global legal colleagues to leverage each other, build capabilities and expertise and syndicate legal resources globally in service of their aforementioned vision and mission. The team of 24 lawyers, two paralegals and 28 consumer claims professionals are mainly located in Italy, with six lawyers located across UK, France and Russia and the claims team based in the UK. They are tasked with building and maintaining a global management systems and working in global teams on strategic projects to advance business and functional priorities. ‘We are laser focused on being one team, recognised for delivering a competitive advantage to Whirlpool’, explains Jaeger de Foras. Striving to be business partners and lawyers, the legal team build and strengthen this culture by using a management system to set, translate and execute the legal and ethics compliance strategy: ‘Through focused initiatives to ensure “one team” engagement and recognition and “people excellence” equipping individuals with the necessary skills to do their job and excel, and “operational excellence” learning to apply and grow through contentious application of continuous improvement mind-set and tools. And while we identify and work to address our opportunities or weaknesses, we celebrate our successes and have fun, while leading ourselves and our business’, says Jaeger de Foras. The legal team has played an important role in several highly visible reindustrialisation efforts in Italy and France, some of which are ongoing today. They have also been at the forefront of several strategic legal matters including the 2018 settlement of a horizontal antitrust investigation into historical practices in France.