Our News.

A fter two decades at Bayer, one of Europe’s most complex and scrutinized multinationals, Thomas Pfennig stepped away from the top ranks of compliance leadership— not out of burnout, but to build something the market was missing.

Pfennig had served as senior vice president and global head of compliance and data privacy, helping steer Bayer’s legal department through a turbulent era: the Monsanto acquisition, high- stakes U.S. litigation over glyphosate, and a multi- year digital transformation recognized by the Financial Times for its innovation.

“There was a ceiling,” he said. “The transformation program we called Bayer 2022 had delivered cost savings, client satisfaction, (and) measurability, but at 50, I knew I wasn’t going to be general counsel. I didn’t want to go back to big law or join another corporate. I saw the chance to do something different—something I could shape from scratch.”

Pfennig had joined Bayer—headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, with North American headquarters in Whippany, New Jersey—as litigation counsel in 2004 and moved through its legal ranks, from in-house roles in the U.S. to ultimately serving as senior vice president and global head of compliance and data privacy in Germany.

He left in December 2023, as Bayer continued to face serious headwinds. The company was navigating over 50,000 unresolved Roundup lawsuits in the U.S., mounting legal settlements, and a collapsing pharmaceutical pipeline. That month, Bayer won its 10th Roundup trial, but broader troubles persisted: slumping Crop Science sales, debt near €42 billion, zero expected By Trudy KnocKless July 18, 2025 From Bayer to Boutique: Why Thomas Pfennig Walked Away to Reinvent Legal TransformationCourtesy photo Thomas Pfennig, ceo of Transforming legal. free cash flow, and a dividend slashed to the legal minimum.

Amid that turbulence, Pfennig saw a natural inflection point—he stepped away to launch Transforming Legal, a legal transformation boutique with a global footprint in Europe, the U.S., and Singapore. The firm focuses on modernizing in-house departments and law firms through data, digital tools, and strategic alignment—not just buzzwords.

In a conversation with Corporate Counsel, Pfennig shared what legal leaders still underestimate about compliance, why AI is already reshaping billing expectations, and what it means for compliance teams to act with courage as well as control. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Corporate counsel: As someone who’s worked across both u.s. and european legal systems, how would you describe the biggest global compliance challenge legal departments are underestimating right now?

Thomas Pfennig: A lot of legal and compliance teams are struggling with the tariff structures imposed by the Trump administration. Import compliance is now critical—it’s impacting customer contracts. Beyond that, data privacy is growing fast—not just in the EU, but in Asia and China too.

I think there’s also value erosion in many organizations. Under stress—job insecurity, unpredictability—people behave differently. So, maintaining ethical focus and integrity becomes even more critical. And with data becoming a core business asset, compliance teams need to be more process-driven and data-savvy to remain relevant.

At Bayer, you led an award-winning digital transformation of the legal and compliance function. What’s one lesson you learned from that journey that legal departments often overlook when starting their own transformation?

You need your team aligned. Not everyone will agree with the direction, and you need a plan for that—either embrace them or move on. You can’t build transformation on fragmented support. Secondly, it’s a bigger challenge to gain adoption from your internal clients. They need time to adjust. In compliance, people still prefer to speak to a person. Transparency can be uncomfortable.

And finally, transformation must be endorsed from the top—CEO, CFO, CLO. Without that, it’s just a silo project with limited impact.

You’ve pioneered compliance training through interactive video and gamification. What prompted you to take that creative risk, and what did it teach you about how employees and lawyers actually learn?

To me, it wasn’t a risk. The goal is to create a learning experience that sticks. Gamified or story-based training isn’t just creative—it reduces risk by being memorable. Regulators don’t want box-checking; they want evidence of engagement. But attention spans are short, so training has to be effective and efficient. Maybe short snippets instead of long courses.

Also, I rarely see departments collaborating to consolidate training across risk functions. That’s a big missed opportunity.

When you advise legal departments today, how do you help them balance traditional compliance obligations with the increasing pressure to serve as business enablers and innovation partners?

Compliance was never supposed to block business. That’s not a new idea. But now the pressure is real—with tariffs, cost of goods, and thin margins. Compliance officers need to know their business: margins, product sourcing, supply chain. They must be enablers. That means occasionally taking defensible risks, not just sticking to the 49.9% safety zone. Enabling means doing—achieving—not just preventing.

The legal industry talks a lot about “culture of compliance.” From your experience, what’s the key to moving that phrase from poster to practice—especially in large, decentralized organizations?

You’ve heard it before—“If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance.” The key is to link compliance to commercial results. Track how many product launches compliance compliance- enabled. Or how you helped move production in response to tariffs. Don’t just measure training participation or the number of whistleblower reports. Show how compliance creates business value—and make that visible internally.

You were a vocal critic of law firms’ reluctance to change billing models even as they adopt generative AI. From your global vantage point, do you think in-house teams are ready to demand real change—or are they also part of the inertia?

There is growing momentum now. The inertia is less than it was six months ago. In-house teams are realizing this is a new chapter. AI is changing both the tangible (costs) and the intangible (human workflows).

The traditional billing model is dying. In-house departments want the efficiency gains from AI to be reflected in pricing. I’ve seen law firms offer discounts if AI is used on the matter. That’s a start, but still rare. Many firms are adopting tools without changing their commercial models, and that’s where the disconnect lies.

You’ve now founded Transforming legal with a global footprint. What’s the biggest myth you encounter when talking to legal leaders about change—and how do you help them get past it?

The biggest myth?—“It doesn’t start with me.” It does. Change starts at the top. Not with procurement. Not with innovation teams. Leaders have to engage, listen, and act. Ask your team what’s slowing them down. Figure out how to give them breathing room and growth opportunities. Too often, I see passionate legal ops people trying to drive change without executive support. That’s not sustainable. Change is a collective effort—but it begins with leadership.