About

Groupe Limagrain is an important component of the French agricultural landscape, and provides the overall structure for a group of companies that boast impressive statistics in their various fields, with group revenue for 2015/16 totalling €2.5bn. The overarching legal function is headed by group general counsel Héloïse Deliquiet, with the overall headcount numbering 52 high quality individuals, who operate at group level or are attached to the 13 business units directly. Deliquiet emphasises that there is very close cooperation between these various teams: ‘There is close interaction with the group and team at business unit level, with a legal network to assist the community of lawyers. We have regular practice groups, work groups and general meetings’. This philosophy of close cooperation between teams is taken further with their policy of using an ‘immersion programme’, whereby legal team members are rotated regularly. ‘We have lawyers from either the HQ or business units going to work for a few days in private practice firms, just to see what it is like working there, and have lawyers from the HQ going to business units and vice versa. This creates greater interpersonal relationships both within our legal team and with the external counsel that we coordinate with’, she says. Deliquiet highlights the huge positive impact that the team’s activities have had on the company’s highly active M&A policy over recent months, including a number of international acquisitions that have required the coordination of overseas counsel. She also lays out the qualities that all members of the team should display in order to succeed: ‘A legal background and a high level of expertise is a prerequisite for working in legal work. What is as important, if not more so, is the way an individual behaves and whether or not they are confident when putting their opinion on the table, in order to make a real difference to the team’s success’.