Canon's new legal chief makes immediate impact

Canon Europe's new legal chief David Bateson has altered the company's legal team without any delay, changing its structure and driving regional panel reviews in key European jurisdictions.

Bateson has appointed new legal heads for Canon's three main business groups - consumer products, business products and emerging markets.

Consumer business legal head Gordon Stewart will take up a new role as head of legal for the company's emerging markets business.

Bateson said: "That part of the business didn't really have anybody specifically focused on it, but there's been huge growth in developing markets." Petter Edfeld will look after the Canon consumer products legal team, while Toby Hornett will take over as the main legal contact for the business services team.

Canon Europe is also re-evaluating its external advisers for major jurisdictions such as France, Spain and Italy.

Bateson said a central legal management team was assisting local counsel with the procurement process.

"What we're trying to do is look at each country and have a beauty parade," said Bateson. "As a company we're going from a collection of regional organisations to a pan-European organisation."

The company's overall legal budget is just less than £10m a year, with around two-thirds of that spent on external advisers.

Finally, Bateson is driving forward a plan to build up Canon's lobbying capability. The company has hired German lobbyist Martin Eckert to work part time in Brussels, but has plans to grow the team.

Before joining Canon Bateson was Fujitsu's Europe, Middle East and Africa legal head.