Vice president and general counsel, Greater China | KONE Corporation
Brian Chen
Vice president and general counsel, Greater China | KONE Corporation
I managed and supported the tendering of over 8,000 real estate and infrastructure projects in China in 2018 and 2019, including more than 200 new tenders and more than 180 on-going major project contracts, each of which with a value of no less than €5m, covering several landmark projects in China, such as the tallest building in Beijing “China Zun”, SoHo projects, metro and airport projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Naijing, Xi’an, Wuhan and more. In addition, I negotiated strategic cooperation framework agreements with around 95 strategic customers, including Vanke, Poly, China Resource, Wanda and Country Garden. I also managed over 500 new litigation and arbitration cases in 2018 and 2019, covering most provinces in China. Based on those valuable real life cases, we developed a tailor made legal best practice programme for cross-function trainings which integrated legal concepts and best practices well into company’s daily business. We also rolled out trainings to all the regions and branches and significantly improved legal awareness of the whole company, covering aspects of contract review, account receivables, risk management, safety, insurance, compliance and more.
In-house lawyers should have the right mind-set and the determination to see themselves as part of the business team, rather than another back-office team. They should really understand the business, know the products, services, markets and customers, and understand the challenges the organisation is facing. In-house lawyers should not act simply as the lawyer, rather they should behave as part of the business team, get to know the teammates and their needs and earn their trust. When giving advice, don’t always refer to laws and regulations, talk about real life examples with the business. For example, in KONE China, for the past eight years, we have handled more than 1,200 lawsuits in various types. We always use real life cases to make our advice real and bring them to life, and we have found that our real life advice has been welcomed by our business colleagues in most cases.
China’s new data privacy legislations.
Leadership – the ability to command the confidence of senior members of the management team and the legal department.
Business judgement and willingness to take risks – balance risk versus reward: some risks are often required and being able to balance the risk for the business versus the reward is very important to understand the short and long term commercial value of the transaction. Communication skills – the ability to communicate to non-lawyers in a clear, concise, non-legalese language and understand the audience. Industry-relevant relationships – extensive knowledge of the individuals who regulate the company’s business.
Over the next few years, more and more senior in-house lawyers will be acknowledged as part of the C-suite. It recognises the expanded job description, increased responsibility and the complex challenges in-house lawyers are facing. It also reflects the strategic nature of the legal function and the contribution it makes to organisational growth. More and more in-house lawyers will be playing a more strategic and proactive role and “add value” to the business. The position also calls for better people skills, social skills, communication skills, social and emotional intelligence.
Collaborative innovation and new competencies: New technologies are changing our and customers’ lives faster than ever. Our people drive our success in this change, which requires us to learn and innovate in new ways. Customer-centric solutions and services: Customers choose partners who best understand their changing needs and help them succeed. We understand these needs, and offer flexible solutions and services which benefit customers and users in the best way.
Fast and smart execution: Customers want their partners in construction projects and building services to be professional, fast and reliable. They choose partners who continuously improve and focus on what is essential. We will increase speed and work smarter to focus on activities that are valuable to the customer. A true service mind-set: Customers value partners who strive to understand and take actions to exceed expectations. We can make a difference by serving our customers better than anybody else. This is the key focus of the company in the future and our legal team will strike to better understand the strategy of the company, think ahead and assess the legal implications of the business’ plans, allow alignment of legal objectives with business objectives, and operate in a manner that maximises its value to the business in a changing environment.
FOCUS ON… Business orientation as one of the key principles of our legal team “Business orientation” is one of the most important attributes of in-house counsel. A major value of an in-house legal department is its understanding of the client and the client’s culture. After all, members of an in-house legal department are also part of that corporate culture. In KONE, we work in partnership with our co-management to anticipate, understand and satisfy their needs in ways that give the company a competitive advantage. Each team member must understand the company’s business plan and goals, its cost pressures, capitalisation issues, competitive realities, and customer wishes, so that our professional services can support innovative business practices that are consistent with acceptable legal risks. We should also be on the business team’s side, understand their challenges and provide general counsel not just in the legal sense. This is why we as reliable problem solvers can win the trust of business colleagues and build up a sizable legal function from the ground up within a short period of time.
