About

The team that provides legal support to the business of Atos in the Central and Eastern Europe region is comprised of eight lawyers and one paralegal, located in different countries across the region. Since mid-2017, highly experienced corporate lawyer Gabriele Neudert took charge of the team, which resulted in a shift from a country-focused responsibility to an international set-up. At present the team is responsible for providing legal support to the Atos companies in Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Switzerland, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, and while not having an in-house lawyer in every country, the lawyers work on all types of projects. In order to meet the increasing workload and to concentrate legal resources on higher value work for the company, the team has conducted an evaluation of smart IT tools for lawyers. It is currently working on the implementation of a contract management solution to support the business stakeholders and are in the process of rolling out group-wide compliance tools to manage its corporate tasks. Most recently, the team has begun testing artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. Besides technological and organisational innovations, Atos’ Central and Eastern Europe legal team has also showcased exemplary transactional capabilities. In 2017, for instance, Neudert’s department was instrumental in a strategic acquisition process, paving the way to the creation of a global food and beverage competency centre. In 2018, the team’s lawyers contributed to the signing of a multinational contract in the retail and consumer packaged goods market. Under this contract Atos provides end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) services delivering insights into consumer behaviour and retail performance. Another major transaction for the team in the 2017/2018 period involved the acquisition by Atos of the Siemens’ subsidiary Convergence Creators Holding – a global multi-industry digital transformation solutions provider with headquarters in Austria. To effectively handle GDPR, the team ensured that Atos adequately processes customer data in full compliance with relevant requirements. To meet these challenges working groups consistent of in-house lawyers and data protection officers were tasked with analysing the requirements and designing the necessary tools and processes.