How do you ensure the legal function supports business resilience during periods of uncertainty or disruption?

One advantage of working in the legal profession is that, when atypical, sensitive or crisis situations arise, operational staff quite naturally and quickly turn to their legal department because they are facing unprecedented situations they do not know how to handle and realise that their ‘usual solutions’ will no longer suffice. We were never called upon at such short notice as we were during the COVID crisis—which, in my view, was the most acute global crisis we have ever experienced. Even the subsequent geopolitical crises in the East or the Middle East did not have the same impact in terms of finding solutions through their internal legal department and safeguarding the company’s interests as the pandemic did.

Within the Legal Department, we know, for instance, which legal texts to consult when addressing a critical situation, which avenues to pursue, and which dispute resolution methods to implement; we know how to renegotiate our upstream and downstream contracts, but we also know how to demonstrate agility in unprecedented situations—as the COVID crisis once again demonstrated.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about ?

Yes, absolutely. For over two decades, I have been committed to promoting gender equality in the workplace—particularly within companies, and specifically regarding women’s access to top leadership roles such as executive committees and boards of directors.
To this end, I have volunteered with several organisations dedicated to this goal, including ‘Grandes Écoles au Féminin’ — a coalition of alumni associations from prestigious institutions such as Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Centrale Supélec, ENA, Ponts, ESSEC, HEC, ESCP, INSEAD and MINES. This group actively addresses these issues through various means: raising awareness by facilitating meetings with major corporate leaders, policymakers and civil society figures; conducting research—such as the recent study titled ‘Is There an Age for High Performance?’; providing input on legislative bills; and organising various other events.

Unfortunately, I fear that these issues will continue to require the dedication of committed individuals for a long time to come, as we strive to advance gender equality across all its dimensions at the highest levels of decision-making.

In the face of increasing regulation and scrutiny, what are the biggest compliance challenges keeping GCs up at night?

I wouldn’t say that regulation has intensified specifically of late; legislative proliferation has long been a constant feature of our legal landscape. However, what has changed recently is the multiplication and escalation of sanctions for certain practices—practices whose actual severity arguably warrants greater substantiation. Notably, new rules have been enacted that penalise non-compliance with legal obligations by imposing fines calculated as a percentage of the company’s or group’s revenue. Given these massive financial penalties, regulatory oversight of compliance with various laws is inevitably a greater source of concern for General Counsel than in the past, as the stakes are significantly higher.

Consequently, General Counsel need—more than ever—to raise awareness among their internal clients of the importance of timely compliance. In this context, they need to ensure that their advice is heeded, while also maintaining up-to-the-minute monitoring of regulatory changes and disseminating that information to ensure immediate implementation.