Solving your legal problems before you have them

• Are you spending more time on legal issues than on your day job?
• Are your contracts written in language that nobody understands?
• Are you overwhelmed by GDPR?
• Do you spend money on legal advice that you can’t translate into action?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need an in-house lawyer — at least some of the time. An in-house lawyer’s job is to ease the burden on the business by keeping its legal affairs in order so you don’t have to worry.

I can help you by

• working with you to manage immediate issues
• developing a legal strategy for your business
• providing training on commercial contracts, employment law, data protection (GDPR), intellectual property and more
• getting your contracts in order using VIHL® Contracts

Advantages of working with me

• ​my experience - I can hit the ground running
• flexibility - I am happy to work on an ad hoc basis
• no hiring costs - I am registered as independent
• I can be available at short notice
• multilingual - I speak English, French and German
• no set-up costs - I have my own equipment

Go beyond compliance

Truth. Trust. Respect.

These are the foundations of ethical behaviour. Much more than complying with minimum legal standards, Truth, Trust, Respect means being a role model in our treatment of employees, suppliers, customers and third parties.

We need to change the impact our businesses are having on the world, both locally and internationally. The time for sitting around and hoping someone else will take action is past. It’s no longer about doing what the law says — if we wait for the law to catch up, it will be too late. We need to:

• speak the truth
• trust that we can make a difference
• respect our world and the people in it

For a more in depth look at the impact business can make — or fail to make — here’s what Mary Mayenfisch Tobin, Adviser on Business and Human Rights, has to say in her blog, Reconnecting With Commonsense.

Operating with Truth, Trust and Respect is a huge advantage. It gives your organisation a solid foundation on which you can build a business that will make a difference.

I can help you by

• working with you to develop and implement a Truth. Trust. Respect. action plan that starts your organisation on a journey beyond compliance
• delivering workshops focused on the competitive advantage that comes from operating with Truth, Trust and Respect
• helping rebuild Truth, Trust and Respect after something has gone wrong: learning from experience and letting go of fear
• mediating between employees who are struggling to trust each other

What is mediation?

Mediation is a way of bringing together the parties to a dispute, in a safe environment, to help them resolve their differences with the help of a neutral third party (the mediator). It is completely confidential, even down to the fact that a mediation has taken place. It can be used at any time and for any kind of dispute. Participation is voluntary — a party to a mediation is free to walk away at any point. Unlike litigation and arbitration, mediation doesn’t create winners or losers, but aims to resolve disputes in a way that meets the needs of all parties.

The mediator’s role is to facilitate discussions and guide the parties towards resolution. A mediator is not a judge, and will not make a decision in favour of any party, but will encourage the parties to find a resolution that works for all of them. It is then for the parties (and their lawyers, if there are lawyers involved), to prepare a settlement agreement that reflects the resolution.

I can help you by

• providing training on detecting and resolving conflicts at an early stage
• facilitating contentious meetings
• providing a confidential, impartial mediation service where conflicts have escalated too far to be resolved without a third party