About

Daniele Novello began his career at Total E&P Italia in 2010 after practicing as an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for over four years. With private practice experience in both Italy and New York, Novello still had a steep learning curve when making the transition into in-house legal life with a position of huge responsibility at global energy giant Total. This adaptation to a different type of work and business environment was, according to Novello, ‘a big challenge’. Leading a small team of three lawyers and one legal assistant who directly report into him, Novello has illustrated his importance to senior management; indeed he talks to the CEO ‘at least once a day’ so that the legal team is central to the company’s plans. The central nature of the legal team is well-deserved and well-needed; operating within the volatile energy market Novello cites the completion of an upstream oil project in such a ‘highly regulated environment like the Italian one’ as a huge challenge, and one which absorbs much of his time and effort. Internally there have been several successes related to the efficiency of the legal team since Novello’s arrival. He overhauled the internal capability of the legal function and took an approach that ‘reduced the contribution of external consultants and the relevant fees’. Further speaking to the effectiveness of his team this reduction in external advice has been driven by ‘an increased level of responsibility of the [internal] team’, rather than a reduction in the total amount of legal work.