About

Filippo Cossalter joined Johnson & Johnson in 2011 and was originally based in Belgium before moving to the Middle East in November 2015, where he now takes on an extremely expansive role as legal director including responsibilities for Turkey, the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Russia and CIS. He also serves as a member of the board of directors and company secretary of Johnson & Johnson Middle East. He is tireless in motivating the legal apparatus he is responsible for and has a clear strategy for how to get the most out of it: ‘For too long legal departments have been overlooking the responsibility that, as managers, we have to treat our duty towards the development of our people. The reasons behind the lack of this are linked to “false myths” that I sometimes hear from colleagues. These include the idea that lawyers are too special and do not need – nor are not allowed to be part of – the HR tools used by the business, or that the development opportunities in legal departments are as flat as our organisational structures. To the contrary, taking accountability for people growth and building long-term development plans for each associate and measuring the progresses should be the top priority for a general counsel’. He is also convinced that in-house counsel are uniquely placed to handle the compliance and ethics questions that will come from increased use of technology in the future. ‘The mix of connectivity, data and artificial intelligence will continue to impact and re-invent different businesses’, he explains. ‘New opportunities will be created while, at the same time, we will be confronted with unconventional challenges especially in delicate sectors such as healthcare. It seems to me that nobody better than in-house counsel have the background and skills needed to take a lead role in developing these new ethics standards’, Cossalter concludes.