Spadel asked Ask Q to fill the temporary gap in the legal team since the group legal counsel was absent for a period of four months.
Challenge
Spadel’s mission is to provide natural answers to the need for hydration and refreshment. Spadel is a market leader for natural mineral water in Benelux and Bulgaria and has a strong legal presence in France. Spadel is known for, among others, the well-known brands Spa and Bru.
Spadel’s group legal counsel is responsible for all legal questions and issues that arise from the business in Benelux and France. The group legal counsel plays a crucial role within the legal team and needs to cover a wide range of legal matters. That is why Spadel considered it quite a challenge to find a solution for the replacement of the legal counsel during 4 months of absence.
Ask Q is unique and offered the ideal solution for the problem we were facing. Ask Q’s offering combines the legal know-how and expertise of a law firm with the proximity, the availability and the business-minded approach of a legal counsel.
Philippine De Wolf
General Counsel Spadel
Solution
Spadel knew of the “classic” legal interim model but was not convinced this would be a flexible and sustainable solution to the challenge they were facing. Ask Q explained how it puts being a game changer into practice and why their approach is so different from existing solutions. It is what made Ask Q different that convinced Spadel.
Ask Q consultant Helena was selected as the SPOC for Spadel based not only on her legal expertise but also on her personality match with the company. The Ask Q SPOC guarantees what the abbreviation stands for: as the single point of contact, Helena was fully available for Spadel. But there was more, each SPOC is backed by the Ask Q team, its experts and its labs. Whenever Helena got confronted with legal issues outside her field of expertise, she could easily call on other Ask Q consultants or even a Quinz lawyer (Ask Q was founded by partners at Quinz), without Spadel experiencing any delay or impediment.
Impact
Ask Q tackles the client’s capacity problems in a different way. We are neither a law firm nor a legal interim agency. In fact, we combine the best of both worlds:
1. Your personal SPOC Like in legal interim management, you have one specific person who is always there for you and knows both your business and team inside out. He or she puts the values in practice that are the cornerstones of Ask Q’s DNA: we are experts, we know what we and we do it with a smile. Spadel and Ask Q jointly organized “onboarding days” that made sure that Helena quickly gained the necessary insights in a short period of time.
2. We come as a team But there is more than the SPOC and this is what makes Ask Q unique. You have the proximity of one legal consultant, but you do not depend for 100% on that specific person alone. Our experts continuously share know-how and best practices and always call out as soon as there is a question that is slightly outside their comfort zone. When Helena had a more complex question regarding data regulations, she called on the GDPR expert within Ask Q to assist her.
3. We speak your language We know what the business thinks and what the legal department wants. Trust us, we’ve been there. The onboarding days at Spadel also helped Helena to be pragmatic and to the point right from the start. Our experts have all worked in-house or as an extension to the legal team of our clients.
4. We stay there for you, even after the project Hence another reason why Spadel was so enthusiastic about the collaboration. In case Spadel needed extra assistance after the temporary replacement, again they can count on Helena. Spadel considered this as valuable and sustainable since Helena gained all experience during the project to hit the ground running for questions that could arise afterwards.
5. The Quinz alliance Ask Q is backed by the law firm Quinz. Helena could at any time use the know-how, templates and expertise developed by Quinz of the last ten years.
