Team size: Five

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

‘From struggle for survival in full-on crisis mode back to operational excellence’ – that is how I would summarise my last 12 months. My company, the global airline caterer and on-board retailer gategroup, was hit hard by Covid-19: from one moment to the next, our business came to an almost complete stand-still. Our revenues dropped from five to two billion Swiss Francs during the pandemic. Under these extreme circumstances, we had to subordinate everything to the goal of ensuring the survival of the company. For my legal team, this meant radically limiting resources and minimising costs while maximising the impact of our contribution to gategroup’s cash initiatives. We had to focus on the absolutely essential whilst still delivering relevant and to the point legal work products and solutions. After Covid, the rapid recovery of the airline industry required an efficient and agile ramp-up of the legal function. Within no time, we went from firefighting mode back to delivering legal excellence on pre-pandemic operational levels.

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

I prefer to talk about how we can get better, rather than using the buzzword innovation. In my experience, the following areas bear particular potential for improvement in a legal in-house team:

· Legal process management: co-operation and communication with internal clients, allocation of responsibility, definition of processes.

· Talent retention and development: continuous exchange with HR on talent retention and development.

· Knowledge management: regular know-how exchange within the legal team as well as stakeholders, drafting of templates, checklists, and guidelines tailormade to cater for specific industry needs and risks.

· External counsel management: guidance on managing external counsel, negotiating engagement letters, and defining reporting requirements.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

Regardless of the industry, I consider the following qualities as decisive success factors for in-house lawyers:

· Legal skills and experience in law firm: sound legal technical skills, structured thinking and problem solving, concise writing and clean drafting, experience as a lawyer (at a business law firm) before going in-house, savviness in legal project and process management for strategic business initiatives.

· Entrepreneurial attitude: feeling as part of the business, focusing on providing solutions, acting as enabler rather than blocker. Develop business acumen and being perceived as true sparring partner. Capability to think out-of-the-box to make things possible, enjoy making decisions and to assume responsibility.

· Flexibility: ability to adapt quickly and flexibly to a constantly changing environment and to new challenges, enjoying diversity and working with people of diverse backgrounds.

· Backbone, courage, and resilience: backbone and courage to stand firm on red lines and hard stops, ability to learn from mistakes, to overcome difficulties and resistance, and to make the most of any situation.

· Leadership: capability to motivate the team without relying on financial incentives, giving constructive feedback, retaining and developing talent.

· Communication: target-oriented, clear, and precise communication, capability to explain complex matters in simple terms and to find the right tone.