About

One of the most well-resourced and effective legal departments worldwide, Total’s legal team has a complement of 520 individuals, 480 of whom are lawyers; half are based in Paris while the rest are located across affiliates in 62 countries. Group general counsel Aurélien Hamelle reports directly to the CEO, while legal directors in each of the six business lines report to their respective business heads, with a strong a dotted line matrix with the general counsel. The legal function also has a legal operations department with group-wide scope. In terms of M&A work, the new gas, renewables and power branch of the team achieved notable results in 2017 and 2018 when they acquired several businesses and legal teams which have since been integrated into the group. Similarly, the M&A teams were intimately involved in the upstream acquisitions of Maersk and the African assets of Anadarko. Total’s legal team has also been influential in issues involving the group related to climate change and compliance, not just to comply with laws, but also to anticipate regulatory developments and pre-emptively gear the business up for dealing with these. ‘Total’s lawyers are proud to be part of Total’, Hamelle says. ‘We are close to the business and respected by their colleagues and, like all employees, they focus on safety and performance. We are pioneers and, above all, stand together’. The in-house legal profession is in a state of change at the moment, but Hamelle sees an obvious way to improve the capabilities of French in-house counsel: ‘We hope that the next development will be the recognition of the in-house role as avocats d’entreprise with the benefit of legal privilege, as is the case in other countries. Without it, our effectiveness and that of the companies we work for is hampered. In the meantime, the role continues to evolve, with a drive to improve efficiency and deliver value for the business, in large and small corporations alike’.