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

The legal department is primarily devoted to the strategic topics of the company, giving fast support to the business aiming to boost its performance, as well as improved ways of working in terms of compliance for risk management and its reduction. For example, since 2020 we have a series of ten monthly meetings with the business – the so-called ‘Competition Law Accelerator Talks’ – in which the most recent questions flagged by the business are analysed by the leaders and with the support of legal, a solution is settled. It is an agile way to increase awareness throughout the organisation on topics like commercial and competition law while we get things done.

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?

Values are the basis for the relationship, but they become concrete through behaviors and attitudes. At Heineken we do care a lot about the so-called ‘Heineken Behaviours’ (in the legal function, our ‘Legal Competencies’). Certainly, if the behaviors and attitudes do not express those values, the relationship as a whole must be reanalysed.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Heineken intends to be the most connected brewer, so we are currently facing a technological revolution in our systems, processes (that are supported by the systems) and therefore, people. Many of the legal processes, especially related to compliance topics, are very much based on technology. It implies a deep knowledge of the legal obligations at stake, but also a good level of information in relation to the application that is supporting the process. It means that the legal teams must be much more sophisticated to be able to capture and balance the situations the technology detects (and more importantly, those situations that the technology does not detect).