Creating value for the business: Ericsson in-house interview
January 17, 2013 | BY
clpstaffTom Nygren, vice president and general counsel of Ericsson's northeast Asia region including China, talks to David Tring about the challenges of operating R&D centres in China, adding value to the business and the qualities he looks for when working with external counsel
 |
| CLP's editor David Tring spoke with Ericsson's general counsel Tom Nygren about their R&D facilities in China |
What is the general structure of Ericsson's legal department?
Ericsson is organised into 11 regions worldwide – 10 geographical regions and IPR and licensing. I am heading the northeast Asia region, comprising mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. In addition, I am a member of leadership team, which means I report to the head of the region, but I also report to the global general counsel of Ericsson. Legal representation in the region is quite lean, including myself we have six lawyers in China, four lawyers in South Korea and one in Japan. Hong Kong and Taiwan is supported from China. Trade Compliance is also organised under legal affairs and we have a number of trade compliance officers in our legal entities and R&D.
Ericsson in-house lawyers are truly general lawyers handling different legal matters specific to the need of each case, but we do not give advice on tax law or labour law – those areas are so specific and niche we use external counsel most of the time. We also use external counsel as little as possible, but when we do lack competence, like in litigation, we use them and also in complicated M&A deals, at least for some leg work because it is quite work intensive.
|
What are some of the qualities you look for when working with external counsel in China?
There are several parameters you consider. Of course, competence is one of the main things, but cost also. We have deals with major law firms in separate markets and globally. In the end it comes down to competence. I prefer to use a specific lawyer that I know and not a law firm. After a while, you build up trust and a relationship with certain lawyers, but on the major M&A deals we have a specific law firm in China we work with. For day-to-day matters, when we try to lessen workload, we go to second tier law firms - they are a little bit cheaper, but provide good service.
|
What are the major challenges you face when operating R&D facilities in China?
China is Ericsson's second largest base for R&D and we have about 4,500 staff spread over five centres. If we take Nanjing for example, there are roughly 500 R&D engineers and they are mainly engaged in R&D for software and hardware. In terms of challenges – and I think this is not only a challenge for Ericsson - we have to ensure quality in our R&D and to maintain the speed. I think that is the main challenge – to have quality and speed.
|
What is a typical day like for you working at Ericsson in China?
 |
| ”I think as a good in-house lawyer your main task and objective is to give value to the business and shareholders” – Tom Nygren |
From a general point of view, you have two separate responsibilities. One is corporate governance and the other is the legal angle of our commercial operation. We need to ensure that the legal requirements for Ericsson's operations in the region are fulfilled and we handle and supervise legal matters for our objectives. This includes the possibility to predict, so we avoid lawsuits. We are also here to protect our investments in the region. We have formed joint ventures relating to our technology know-how. We also have responsibility to ensure that national legislation, which may affect our activities, is made known within the organisation. Like most in-house lawyers, we are involved in drafting contracts and negotiations, interpreting existing legislation and coordinating litigation activities.
What makes being in-house counsel so interesting is that there is basically not a typical day. They all look different. Right now I work on some specific projects in the region and I also supervise the work of my colleagues. They have various experience and work on various projects and escalate things to me when need be.
|
What is one of the biggest challenges you had to overcome this year?
I think as a good in-house lawyer your main task and objective is to give value to the business and shareholders, on the commercial side. On the corporate governance side, it is governance issues. But if you look at the commercial side, our sales and sourcing issues, I think it is very important for us to be able to give true and accurate advice. But in order to be able to do so, it is so important that we are involved very early in the process, only in that case can we be creative and really help the business to work. We are not here as a police organisation, we are here to help find solutions. But if we are involved late, it is hard to be that creative force that really adds value to the business. That is a continuous challenge.
|
Which pieces of legislation had an impact on your work in the last year?
There were the new CIETAC Rules of Arbitration. The interim measures allowed were important for us, but also what was important and we changed all our template contracts regarding the venue and place of arbitration to Beijing, because of the issues between CIETAC sub-commissions. And, the new draft of entitling Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), are our business interests. We also closely follow the developments of data protection legislation. As a member of the European Chamber of Commerce, we are actively participating in several working groups providing comments on PRC draft legislation.
By David Tring
Further reading:
This premium content is reserved for
China Law & Practice Subscribers.
A Premium Subscription Provides:
- A database of over 3,000 essential documents including key PRC legislation translated into English
- A choice of newsletters to alert you to changes affecting your business including sector specific updates
- Premium access to the mobile optimized site for timely analysis that guides you through China's ever-changing business environment
Already a subscriber? Log In Now