One of the seven oil “supermajors” that dominate global production, Total’s exploration and production operations in Nigeria are undertaken by Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, which share a joint legal function composed of 15 individuals with diverse skillsets. The team, led by general counsel Olatowun Candide-Johnson, has recently expanded its talent base by taking on a new deputy general manager to oversee its various legal managers.

This development has ‘further enhance[d] the team’s drive to give commercially responsive legal advice’ and ‘solidifie[d] the team’s role as [a] cooperative partner in achieving the company’s broader strategic and business objectives’.

The department is heavily involved in all strategic decisions made by the company, to the point where ‘no action is taken by the company without consultation of the legal department’, a significant achievement that highlights the growing importance of the legal function to Total’s activities. Much of this success has resulted from a dynamic internal policy that sees constant improvements as essential, and indeed, as Candide-Johnson puts it, ‘the team is constantly evolving to ensure premium service delivery to its clients’.

This has manifested itself in a number of improved internal processes: ‘in recent times, the team has begun modifying its service delivery by streamlining tasks based on subject matter and not just location’, which has led to ‘quicker response times, [the] development of subject matter experts, better client satisfaction and [more] efficient productivity’. This approach has paid dividends in terms of the team’s case management, which has seen them successfully deal with ‘employment relations, tax disputes, contracts [and] arbitration’ over the past year. That the team has been so successful in what are challenging times for oil producers is testament to their efficiency, professionalism and establishment of solid working practices.