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

Over the past year, the Global Legal Department has been diligently working on several successful initiatives. Among our notable achievements is the acquisition of ITN Logistics Group in Canada. Additionally, we have proudly established new offices in India, Egypt, and Colombia, further expanding our global presence. In our ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency, we are collaborating closely with internal tax, finance, and local stakeholders towards the common goal of simplifying our legal structure, which will help us reduce administrative costs and create a leaner organisational framework. This process is guided by thorough risk assessments related to the work performed in each specific country. Moreover, we have successfully completed an extensive risk assessment of all the countries in which we operate. This assessment was conducted against the sections of our code of conduct, ensuring that we focus our compliance efforts on the most critical areas and countries. Finally, we successfully restructured our finance structure and obtained a new EUR 375m. senior secured bond.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

While cost is undoubtedly an important factor in our decision-making process, the availability of external counsel and their understanding of our business needs are paramount. We do not require our external lawyers to be available around the clock, but we do expect them to have a solid grasp of our requirements and to be aware of what is relevant to us. Additionally, it is important for external counsel to ensure that we are aligned regarding expectations and recommendations. Their in-depth knowledge of the relevant area is essential in making informed decisions. They should also be able to distinguish between what is necessary and what is merely desirable for our business. As an in-house legal department, we place a high emphasis on providing commercial and legal guidance in order to function effectively as business partners, and we expect our external counsel to share a similar approach. Our evaluation of their performance is based on their availability, their ability to understand our business and challenges, the practicality and simplicity of their advice and recommendations, and a fair fee structure. Furthermore, we expect our external counsel to keep us updated on relevant matters affecting our business, in line with the services they provide to SGL.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

SGL has a clear purpose of uncomplicating the world for our customers, and this is also strongly embedded in the daily work of the Global Legal & Compliance team. We have implemented a “best practice” whereby we also seek to uncomplicate matters for our internal customers. We have changed the way we handle insurance claims by enabling the business to resolve matters directly and quickly with the customer, instead of relying on what is often a lengthy legal process.

What are some of the biggest legal or regulatory challenges currently facing your industry, and how is your team preparing to address them?

In short, we see a highly increased focus on compliance and regulatory matters that we need to adhere to when having operations in more than 60 countries. The fact that we are working internationally also adds another layer of complexity to our legal and compliance work.