Orange Business Services' Emea team in three-way split

France Telecom's outsourcing arm Orange Business Services has restructured its legal team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) following the departure of general counsel David Ross for BT.

The 21-lawyer team has been split into three divisions: Western Europe; Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). France is separate and was not part of Ross's remit.

Orange Business Services general counsel Michael Berg told The Lawyer: "Emea is a vast geographic area with a large number of lawyers. I deemed it too large a region for one person."

The Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa teams are headed by Ross's former deputy Aline Daufresne in Brussels and Dirk Naumann in Frankfurt respectively.

The Russia and CIS team has four lawyers and is headed by Paul Werne, who is based in Paris. They all report in to Berg, who is based in the US and has a team of around 40 lawyers across the globe.

Most of the work is kept in-house and Berg works very closely with France Telecom general counsel Pierre-Yves Larrouturou.

The company has a global panel that includes Baker & McKenzie and Simmons & Simmons, which advise on big outsourcing deals.