KPMG Legal Reimagined Nordic and Baltic’s Newsletter

This is a newsletter issued by the KPMG Legal Reimagined Nordic and Baltic Group, a collaborative initiative since 2021 with the aim to revolutionize the legal landscape within our region. 

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Purpose of this series is to check in with legal leaders out there that are transforming for the future and set out on a journey to improve and develop as a legal function and team.

In this article we meet Christine Bruhn Tuxen, Group General Counsel, responsible for Legal, Compliance, Risk Management and IPR in LEO Pharma based in Ballerup, outside Copenhagen, Denmark.

Hi Christine and welcome to our Legal Reimagined Trail Blazing Legal Leaders series!

Tell us a little about your current role and your background. 

“I am currently responsible for Legal, Compliance, Risk Management and IPR in LEO Pharma.  I am Group General Counsel and I've been with LEO Pharma for approximately one year. A little bit about my background; I started as an external lawyer at Kromann Reumert. Initially I it was important for me to be a part of the core business. I wanted to be in a role where I could create and drive value, I didn't want to “just” be in a support function. But after some years I felt that I could drive more value on the other side of the table as a support to the core business. Creating value in a slightly different way. In my previous role as an external lawyer, I encountered a lot of problems for clients that perhaps could have been avoided. One of the key drivers for me personally is driving value creation.”

Stepping out of the classical ‘support function’ - What did you learn about working on the “other side of the table”?

“I worked in volatile industries in my first decade as inhouse counsel. You learn a lot from being an integral part of a company in a volatile industry. Because it forces cross functional collaboration and a strong joint focus. You must get all the people onboard to move in the same direction – maybe with various interests and elements of focus, but with a joint goal. There's no margin for spending resources on matters that don't create value. I also quickly learned how to communicate within the business. I was taught the value of using Excel and PowerPoint as a business communication tool where you speak the same language as the business. This is something that they don’t teach you in law school.”

What would you consider to be the biggest shift within the classical role of providing legal advice for a business?

“It is a shift from the classic reactive role: you contact the lawyer when you have a legal issue, you ask a question and you are provided with an answer - to the proactive business focused role where you participate in the discussions on an equal footing as the rest of the business. The latter is the development I have always pushed for and where there is most value creation - being involved and included - and it is also the development that I see in general across the legal world. 

Historically, the inhouse legal function was considered a resource that was set up to provide more cost-efficient legal advice than the external lawyers. Of course, you also had more insight, due to your knowledge of the business and operations. But you were typically put in the corner of the office, reacting upon requests, called in to do a piece of work… and then you went back to your corner again. The function historically operated more as a mini external law firm within the business. ”

I think that is very spot on description of the development of the tendencies we see from an advisory angles as well. In which corner do you think the legal function ideally should be placed?

“If we need to pick a new corner, it must be in the corner where management is located, sitting with the business, enabling a direction for the business that naturally both creates growth, but also ensures compliance and mitigates risks. No corners of a business should operate autonomously.  There are of course processes, especially in a pharmaceutical company, where Legal has an approver role e.g. promotional material where there must be processes and controls in place. But the legal function should never be as a showstopper – Legal must be a business enabler. There is opportunity to create value if legal are included early in the discussions.”

In addition to your own perception that this is how a legal role should act, do you experience that this is also the expectation to the legal roles function today?

“I definitely think there is a push from the business that the legal function, and in fact also compliance and IPR are not just sitting in an isolated corner waiting. There seems to be a general shift towards the ‘ways of working’ being more proactive - and in reality, for Legal to be a step ahead of the business and management needs. To guide and lead the way balancing growth and risks. That is my experience and I think this probably a necessity for being competitive today. In a way you can say, that today being a trusted advisor, often goes beyond what is just ‘legal matters’. My role as Group General Counsel is no different than the rest of my peers in LEO Pharma – we are all here to ensure the successful execution of the corporate strategy and bringing different professional backgrounds to the table. Successful companies are able to utilize this diversity to excel in execution. 

Often business areas operate in siloed structures, even in a matrix organization, and as a function, working across silos, Legal has the opportunity to be part of the value creation by contributing to operational excellence across.”

So, in conclusion the role of General Counsel encompasses much more than just the classical legal advisor. Related to that subject - if we are talking beyond the classical legal function and the requirement to perhaps be somewhat more proactive – do you also experience other requirements?

“For quite some time now, there has been a requirement to continuously drive a more efficient legal function. Mainly because we are being hit by more and more legislation and complexity, but without the opportunity to scale the legal function in the same way as seen within the last decade. So, I think we have reached a point where legal functions will not increase the number of staff to the same extent while the number of tasks and responsibilities will continue to increase. And here digitization is an obvious tool, to help create a more efficient legal function – this will be the essence of resource optimization, controlling risks, securing reporting, and supporting transparency. AI and tech will be a ‘must have’ for the legal function to meet expectations – and to retain their talents.”

In terms of creating business maturity towards a greater digital transition what will the role of the legal counsel be in that perspective?

“Today you must be able to demonstrate that you have compliance programs that are effective as opposed to the historic ‘paper compliance’ requirements. However, this also means that you must understand the processes that exist in a company in order to support the business to be compliant. And to do that, the legal function will have to be able to lift across the business’ ‘Master Data Agenda’ and the ‘Digitization Agenda’ - and essentially, you have to be able to lift the ‘Operational Excellence’ agenda. You have to be a T-shaped lawyer: deep expertise combined with a clear understanding of the business context as well as interpersonal skills to drive impact.  

Could you give us an example?

“We saw it with GDPR. You could approach it the “old school way” by just leaving everything as it was, and then drive compliance on top of it, but that would be extremely inefficient. So instead of just saying “now there are some new rules, so now all systems must be compliant” the more modern and mature approach is to ask, “okay, so what do we want to achieve with this?”. That is where you need to start: your goal. If you have one system, which for example is better at handling sensitive data. Then perhaps we should in fact change our processes so that all of our sensitive data is in that particular system. So, using enterprise architecture as an approach in collaboration with IT, instead of trying to make every system and process compliant.

I think this is what is the main requirement of you, as a legal counsel today. And this goes way beyond what you are actually trained for. You have to be able to think much more across the business and be risk intelligence. There is not a single company in this world that is 100 percent compliant with everything. And that is because it makes no sense, it is not operational, it creates no value. Instead establish your risk profile, make your plan, and work from there.”

I agree. What would you say it is to be ‘Risk Intelligent?

“This is where I have seen somewhat of a paradigm shift. Historically the complete risk responsibility has been placed within the legal & compliance-function. But if you are to be risk intelligent, then you also have to push that responsibility onto the people who make the operational decisions. The accountability for the risks lies with the business. I think most companies are on this journey, and it is also a necessary journey in order to not increase complexity.”

If this is the future needs, what does this require from the future lawyer?

“It requires that you are comfortable moving beyond the classic legal deed. And I think, you have to start at the very basic level at law school. I think they are better prepared for that on CBS and Aarhus BSS, with the Cand.merc.jur. education. There are many benefits to having a Cand.merc.jur in your team because they are trained with the business acumen. Communication, and business intelligence, are attributes which you must possess as the modern lawyer - no matter your educational background. And here, the Cand.merc.jur may just have an advantage.

When I started my career, you received a very broad education. You were forced around in different legal areas. I also obtained very broad insights across industries. Today, because the law firms’ business model also has seen at lot of pressure, there has been an increase in the demand for a higher degree of specialization. But with the result that moving outside the law firm sphere to meet business expectations has ultimately grown harder. You may be well equipped for a specialized role in house, but it will make you less equipped for a general counsel role.”

How do you then step out of the classical “lawyer-trap” so to speak? 

“I think it comes down to your mindset. It's about not seeing your career as a ’straight ladder‘, but in reality a bit more like a ‘jungle gym’, where you have to move around in another way. I think you have to be curious and constantly develop. 

You also have to understand what drives you. If you are driven by legal shenanigans and the theory behind it, then there are plenty of jobs where that it's a beneficial. However, you move away from that, as General Counsel, it is kind of in the title, that you need to be a generalist - you need to know a little about a lot.  And you have to be able to settle and be okay with that – you need to let go of being a specialist and know that your value now lies somewhere else.”

Absolutely, that makes sense. Now to round off, if we went back 10 years, and Christine was allowed to give herself one piece of career advice, what should it be? 

“To enjoy the journey. Remember to enjoy the journey!”

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