Team size: Ten

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

NSRP is the defendant of an ongoing US2bn (estimated) arbitration claim under SIAC rules. The EPC contractor is mainly asking for extensions of time to avoid paying liquidated damages, additional costs, misrepresentation, and a significant negative variation. NSRP on its side is counterclaiming and asking for the payment of liquidated damages and being indemnified for defective works. The department, with the fantastic support of its external counsel, has been through all the pleadings and four different hearings and is expected a partial award on the liability by the end of the year.

Within the frame of a transformation study, the legal department has successfully provided support on the following matters: simplifying the procurement procedure; providing a comprehensive benchmark analysis of the current market conditions to achieve renegotiation of offtake agreements including price formula, payment terms and lifting obligations and; working on the feasibility of diversifying crude supply while complying with both the financing documentation and the Government’s Guarantees and Undertaking Agreement.

With the support of my team, I have built up a compliance function. Several major tasks have been made such as the drafting and publication of a code of conduct, a whistleblowing procedure and the implementation of an anti-money laundering and combatting terrorism policy. Annual audits on top of daily supports have been put in place. The whistleblowing procedure in particular has been remarkably successful to provide the company’s employees with empowerment and accountability to fight against any corruption or other violation of the code of conduct.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

With globalisation being an all-conquering force, companies with shareholders coming from different countries, and therefore with different business culture and approaches, are no longer unusual. Legal counsel are therefore expected, not only to understand such approaches, but also to make sure that their role, analysis, and advice are understood by all: this requires an exceedingly elevated level of adaptability and resilience.

In-house counsel are expected, increasingly, to provide advice on diverse topics such as contract law, corporate law, project finance, insurance, tax, and disputes. As a result, the time where you could build your career while being one-task centred does not exist anymore. Nowadays, in-house counsel are required to understand and anticipate the implication of any issue on the project.

When one day of business interruption costs several million US dollars, you must be reactive. Knowing that every single major decision needs to be approved by management, shareholders, and other stakeholders, and knowing that the process could therefore be lengthy, in-house counsel are expected to anticipate and make sure that relevant authorisations will be granted on time.