Develop Internal and External Communication
Part of leadership at all levels is effective communication. Several channels were put in place to ensure that the legal department is close to the business and that communication is plentiful and fluid.
Global and Local Intranet Pages Legal has a global intranet page while each local department has also its own page on local intranets. The purpose of these pages, regularly updated, is to be the first image of the legal department, presenting its organization as well as its mission statement: “Whichever country you might be in and whatever your role in Capgemini is, the legal community strives to work with you as true business partner as well as trusted adviser. Our mission is to contribute to the Group's development by facilitating profitable business through professional, responsive and pragmatic legal advice and contract management support to all the Group’s activities.”
“Fiona Booklet” Leveraging a local initiative from a junior lawyer, a booklet named “Fiona meets the Legal Department” has been created with the aim to present the legal department to the sales and delivery communities in an innovative form. The innovation comes from the format, the creation of a cartoon figure, Fiona, the story telling, and from the humorous tone. The booklet tells the story of Fiona, a junior sales or delivery representative recently hired by Capgemini who is regularly confronted with legal issues. It addresses basic questions such as: When is a contract concluded? What are the legal issues in a contract? This local initiative was rapidly turned into a global initiative and the booklet is now available worldwide. This was so successful that another booklet covering data privacy topics was created, “Fiona meets Data Protection.”
Legal Ease “Legal Ease” are simple one-page articles posted regularly on the Capgemini intranet, with the motto, “Legal cannot get easier than this!” Again, it was started as a local initiative and was quickly turned global.
Local legal departments are encouraged to create their own Legal Ease covering local matters, and a global Legal Ease is prepared for subjects with a global relevance. Through Legal Ease, global and local legal teams keep the business teams informed about various legal issues, tips, tricks and developments relevant in everyday business. Topics range from signing Non-Disclosure Agreements, to a new law on payment terms, and from open source software to parent company guarantees. These articles are very useful and can be used as pre-drafted answers to business teams. Many legal team members also add a link to the Legal Ease page on their internal signature, increasing the awareness of the initiative.Global Survey The headquarters legal department launched internal surveys to rate the services it renders and the importance of Legal to the success of Capgemini’s business. The surveys are sent to the communities interacting with Legal, rating accessibility, respect of deadlines, legal expertise, understanding of business issues, advice communication and quality of work. Broader questions about the role expected from Legal as well as its contribution to the success of the business are also very valuable as they help determine the position of the legal department within the company. Suggested improvements regarding skills and expertise allow for the anticipation of business needs. These surveys led to specific action plans, which helped develop today’s legal department. In the 2008 global survey, almost half of the respondents indicated that a contract management function should be systematically implemented for complex and/or big deals, which contributed to the creation of the contract management function within Legal.
External Communication The legal department of a multinational company has a role to play in the market at many levels, by sharing ideas, writing papers, contributing to the training of attorneys to be qualified, and networking in the market place.
Capgemini’s Group General Counsel participates in numerous events. She initiated the reunion of General Counsels of other large multinationals headquartered in France to discuss marketplace issues. This gathering evolved into the Commission of CAC40, a reunion of the General Counsels of the 40 largest companies on the Paris stock exchange, which she co-leads with another multinational company’s General Counsel. The initial impetus was her ambition to join forces with other General Counsels of multinationals to lobby on the question of the recognition of the status of in-house counsel in the marketplace, and the lack of “attorney-client privilege” resulting from the Akzo Nobel case law at a time where France’s President had commissioned a study on the reform of the legal profession including in-house counsels. More generally, she wanted to reinforce the legal function in corporations and also ensure that Group General Counsels would meet as regularly as CEOs and CFOs do, to allow them to discuss best practices or regulatory changes. Capgemini Group’s General Counsel is also a member of the European board of the International Association of Conflict Prevention and Resolution. Capgemini legal department members are strongly encouraged to participate in numerous events, and be speakers at marketplace events on specific themes such as data privacy, intellectual property or contract management matters or at sessions organized by other multinationals. It is important to benchmark and exchange views in the marketplace and to contribute thought leadership on specific topics relevant to one’s industry.2.2