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

Our team supports the Pharmaceutical, Consumer Health and Crop Science businesses in all legal, compliance and IP matters. We are regularly involved in M&A, litigation, strategic alliances and patent life-cycle issues. For M&A, we were most recently involved in the Japan sale of Bayer’s Environmental Science Business to Cinven and for litigation, we recently closed a public whistleblower dispute which took multiple years to settle.One of our recent focusses has been to help drive digital transformation, for example, crop protection through the use of drones, CH e-commerce, and AI portfolio for CT/MRI scans, where we provide close assistance in contract negotiation, data privacy, patents and copyright issues. We have also embarked on proactive efforts to digitalize our own way of delivering services and have implemented e-contracts/seals and digitalization of BoD and Shareholder resolutions.

Could you share an example of a time when your team came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

One innovative tool we have implemented is “Compla-san”, an award-winning game application for compliance training which we developed from scratch. Most recently, during our Global Compliance Week, we hosted a Compla-san competition in which employees took part to compete for prizes. The event culminated in an award ceremony for the winners which we held in Metaverse space. We involved top management in the award-giving who had the fun experience of manoeuvring their own avatars. This was the very first metaverse event held in Bayer Japan, which was achieved at zero cost as we teamed up with an external vendor who was looking to conduct a pilot with their new tool.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values?

It is very important to choose external lawyers who align with our company’s values. While we do have long-standing relationships with a number of law firms, we are highly selective of the external lawyers we choose to work with and we determine this on a case-by-case basis. We strongly value working with external lawyers who aspire to high standards in sustainability issues as well as inclusion and diversity. Given our focus on innovation, we also welcome working with firms which promote digital solutions and efficient service delivery.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Our legal team plays an important role as both guardian and business partner for our company. In order to have a strong relationship with the business, it is key to get involved early to understand the issues and work alongside the business teams in reaching their goals. In order to be seen as a trusted advisor, we need to go beyond technical accuracy as lawyers, collaborate with the business and be prepared to be involved in discussions that are even outside the legal scope. Ultimately, one wants to be the kind of in-house lawyer who is invited to the table when the business discussions are beginning and strategies are being formed. Where we have continuous resource constraints, this is not always easy, and it requires us to have a certain level of individual curiosity and pro-active drive. With the right approach, however, I believe business teams will only naturally understand the immense value in-house lawyers are here to offer.