More Than Words: Reflections of a General Counsel

Hassan Hassan, Associate General Counsel, GE Healthcare, UAE

As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, general counsel have a unique opportunity to pause and reflect. We began the previous decade with a stock market crash and ended it with the greatest global economic crisis since the 1930’s. In between, we have seen many companies collapse under the weight of massive internal fraud and corruption. We saw the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other legislation enacted as a reaction to a series of corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Parmalat, Shell, Tyco, WorldCom and others. The U.S. Department of Justice continues to expand the scope of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, setting the pace for unprecedented growth in U.S. and international enforcement of anti-corruption laws. The record $1.3 billion in fines paid by Siemens to settle bribery allegations serves as a compelling example of the catastrophic financial loss that is a consequence of an integrity lapse or worse, the absence of a culture driven by high performance with unyielding integrity. Globalization has added various other challenges to the role of GCs, including navigating a materially changing landscape of legal, regulatory and reputational risk.

Hassan Hassan is the Associate General Counsel for GE Healthcare in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Turkey, Russia and CIS regions.

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a US$17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.