About

Operating in France since 1996, Teva Santé is the French subsidiary of the Nasdaq and Tel Aviv-listed Teva Pharmaceutical Group, and its legal team is extremely well regarded in a sector that is extremely tightly regulated. The most senior lawyer in the Teva Santé legal team is Beatrice Bihr who also operates as secretary general, and is well-known among French in-house legal circles for her extra-curricular role as vice president of the Cercle Montesquieu society of general counsel. ‘The legal department cultivates a spirit of rigour, efficiency and availability’, Bihr says. ‘The members of the legal department are graduates of leading business schools in addition to the bar school and are former attorneys, particularly committed to delivering excellent client service in compliance with ethical rules – it is a real business partner to all operational staff’. The team’s already expansive set of responsibilities has been increased recently, with both public affairs and labour law topics now falling under their remit. In the M&A category, it has also proved extremely successful in both acquisitions (particularly via the massive, $39bn securing of Actavis Generics in late 2016), notable projects supporting company sales and reputation management. ‘In one sentence, we strive to incorporate the six values promoted by Teva Group: leading the way, focus and accountability, getting it done together, innovating where we create value, caring and making our families proud’, Bihr says when discussing the team’s positive internal culture. Innovation is also keenly encouraged: ‘In this respect, one of the members of the legal department is a creative relay within the subsidiary and regularly conducts training sessions in order to allow operational teams to learn various creativity techniques, which may be useful in the development of some of their projects’. Highly regarded by industry observers, Bihr and the Teva Santé legal team received recognition as the best litigation team in a recent industry awards ceremony, based on the criteria of strategic vision, litigation policy and risk prevention. The future looks bright for the Teva Santé legal team, and its focus on innovation and fostering creativity within it is a conscious decision to stay up to date with developments in the profession. ‘Lawyers are no longer those who hide behind the legal rule book but have become active contributors to the development and growth of the company’s business’, Bihr says. ‘In view of this, we think that the field left to the creativity of legal counsels is called to be always bigger. The way in which lawyers develop their creativity should more and more be regarded as an important element of differentiation and competitiveness for companies’.