Team size: 650+  

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

The three-year terms of our Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) with the French, US, and UK authorities ended in January 2023, signalling the authorities’ trust in the profound and enduring compliance transformation we have implemented in Airbus since my arrival in 2015.  The Airbus legal and compliance department achieved this rewarding conclusion through stamina and coordination of multiple functions and businesses around the world over a sustained three-year period. We evolved from merely defending the importance of compliance to demonstrating that a foundation of integrity is a competitive advantage for Airbus, on par with the quality and safety of our products.  The recent closure of the consent agreement with the US State Department marks the end of this period of supervision by the French, US, and UK authorities on these matters. 

Secondly, the settlement of our dispute with Qatar Airways in February 2023 was a significant milestone that we achieved through hard work and support from outside counsel. This amicable and mutually agreeable settlement will enable Airbus and Qatar Airways to move forward and work together as partners. 

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?   

During the corruption investigations by the French, US, and UK enforcement authorities, we established a novel way of working with outside counsel in multiple jurisdictions using technology to conduct the investigation, and report quickly and accurately to the different authorities. Thus, the “Virtual Law Firm” was born; a virtual grouping of our key external advisors working seamlessly to advise the company on all matters pertaining to the investigation.    

Have you used AI in your day-to-day work? If so, how useful do you find it?  

We have already embarked on the transformation of our work with the creation of our own data analysis centre using smart review technology to automate and expedite the review of immense amounts of data (which would have taken decades to review without technological assistance).  

We continue to evolve further in 2023. We are now leveraging our experience to establish an internal data centre using innovative software with a new internal data analytics team based in Portugal, helping us build skills for the future.   

AI will certainly have a huge impact on our ways of working and will become a very powerful tool to reduce administrative and routine tasks for in-house counsel and allow our teams to focus on the critical legal and strategic questions.