Team size: 3

What are the projects that you are most proud of working on over the past 12 months?

An important project has been the transformation of our sales model from a distribution model to a direct sales model, as part of which our dealer network will become an agent network and online and offline sales of our vehicles will be seamlessly integrated. This requires our company to leave behind a decades old operating system and switch to an entirely different one under a new legal framework, with many strategic and tactical decisions to be made. The Legal team is closely involved.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

A commercial mindset that translates into a practical and pragmatic approach, weighing company and industry specifics. The legal profession (in the Netherlands) has been traditionally focused on creating lengthy documents of which the most important objective seemed to be to demonstrate the extensive knowledge about a certain legal topic (i.e. lawyers entertaining lawyers). While it is still of equal importance to provide advice with a solid legal basis, such advice should be practical, pragmatic and to the point. And it should be fast. If it is not, then the in-house legal function is generally perceived as a burden rather than as a service.

An in-house counsel should always know the top priorities of the most important internal clients. It is also recommended to align the incentives applicable to the Legal team with the commercial targets for the company where possible.

Finally, the mindset should be to be a department of how instead of a department of no.