When Beat Hess joined oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell in June last year his first task was to present a report to the committee of managing directors (CMD) on his vision for the role of the 600-strong legal function within the group. Five months later, after careful consultation with his legal management team, the report was complete.
In November Hess presented the findings to the CMD. He outlined his recommendations on the organisational structure of the legal function, the challenges ahead and the legal risks facing the group, including US-driven litigation and related exposure. The report also tackled the issue of e-mail communication discipline, and key to the presentation was the importance of the role of the legal function in the group. No-one could have envisaged how precipitate his conclusions would be: “How long does it take to build a reputation? 100 years,” the first slide read. “How long to destroy it? A headline.”
