Team size: Eleven

Jurisdictions your role covers: Global, but mainly Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland, US, People’s Republic of China, Macau, Hong Kong, India and Japan.

How do you manage and coordinate legal responsibilities across multiple jurisdictions from a Portugal‑based role, and what are the main challenges this presents in practice? 

Managing legal responsibilities across multiple jurisdictions requires a combination of governance discipline, process standardisation, virtual proximity and strong local partnerships. Our Legal Team defines global standards, templates, and risk positions, particularly in areas such as contracts, corporate governance, compliance, and IP, and this ensures consistency in how we approach risk, negotiate key terms, and protect strategic assets across all jurisdictions in which we operate. But at the same time, we rely on trusted local counsel and internal stakeholders to adapt these frameworks to jurisdiction-specific legal and regulatory requirements.

In practice, the geographic location of the function is less relevant than the way it operates. Although I am based in Portugal, the Legal Team is global in nature, bringing together professionals from different jurisdictions and backgrounds, including both lawyers and chemical engineers, and we operate as a single, integrated Team. This diversity of expertise and perspective is essential in a highly technical and international industry, and allows us to combine legal rigor with a strong understanding of the underlying science and business.

To enable this coordination, we have invested in process discipline and digital tools, including the implementation of a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system, which enhances visibility, standardisation, and turnaround across regions. This allows the Team to operate as a unified global function rather than a collection of local legal silos. The main challenges are inherent to any international organisation. These include navigating divergent regulatory frameworks, managing timing and responsiveness across time zones, and ensuring alignment between global strategy and local execution.

Ultimately, success depends on clarity of roles, and strong communication channels, together with a shared understanding of risk and business priorities across the organisation.

In what ways does your legal function contribute to international business strategy, transformation or growth, beyond traditional compliance or risk mitigation? 

Our Legal function is deeply embedded in the company’s international strategy and plays a proactive role well beyond traditional compliance or risk mitigation. Given the nature of our business as a global CDMO, Legal is central to enabling innovation, structuring partnerships, and supporting expansion into new markets and technologies. We are closely involved in strategic initiatives such as joint ventures, licensing arrangements, and platform collaborations, where legal structuring directly impacts value creation and long-term commercial success.

A key area of contribution is the IP strategy. Through activities such as freedom-to-operate analyses, portfolio development, and licensing structuring, the Legal Team helps protect and enhance the company’s technological and competitive positioning on a global scale. In addition, Legal plays an important role in organisational transformation. This includes the digitisation of legal processes (such as the implementation of a CLM system) improving efficiency, transparency, and decision-making across the business. More broadly, Legal acts as a strategic partner to senior management and the Board, contributing to key decisions on investments, partnerships, contracts and risk management.

How do you structure relationships with internal stakeholders and external counsel across different jurisdictions to ensure effective collaboration and decision‑making? 

Effective collaboration across jurisdictions depends on a well-structured ecosystem of internal stakeholders and external legal partners, supported by clear governance and communication principles. Internally, the Legal Team operates as an integrated business partner, working closely with functions such as Sales, Procurement, Strategic Alliances, R&D, Finance and others. We emphasise early involvement in projects, ensuring that legal considerations are integrated from the outset rather than addressed reactively. This is supported by clear communication channels and defined processes for escalation and decision-making.

Also, the Legal function plays a key role in supporting governance bodies, including the Board and its committees, ensuring alignment between legal, strategic, and organisational priorities across jurisdictions. Externally, we maintain a curated network of preferred law firms, combining global full-service firms for complex, multi-jurisdictional matters with specialised boutiques offering deep expertise in areas such as IP, regulatory law, and litigation. This network is managed centrally to ensure consistency in quality, pricing, and alignment with our expectations. We place significant emphasis on relationship management and performance evaluation. External counsel are assessed not only on technical expertise, but also on responsiveness, commercial awareness, and their ability to provide pragmatic, actionable advice across jurisdictions