GE European legal head Hendrik Bourgeois tells Alex Aldridge how the world’s largest company cut its 270-firm line-up in the region to a relatively streamlined 80
Earlier this year, Forbes magazine named General Electric (GE) as the largest company in the world in its annual Global 2000 list. GE employs 323,000 people globally (among them over 1,000 lawyers) across a range of businesses including electronics, healthcare and financial services. So when it comes to reviews of external legal advisers at the company, the processes involved are complex and lengthy: 18 months, in this case.
