Veteran Hewlett-Packard (HP) in-house lawyer Joyce Norcini is adjusting to her new environment. Plucked from the sunny hills of Palo Alto earlier this year when she landed a coveted role as HP's new general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Norcini now heads up the computer giant's 115-strong regional legal team from Switzerland.

Norcini describes her new home on the banks of Lake Geneva as 'very cosmopolitan' and says that making the move from California was one that she had been thinking about for a while.

"Geneva is really quite small but incredibly international," she says. "Our new general counsel, Mike Holston, has been over here on a visit already, which was very well received by the lawyers on the ground."

Norcini's appointment to HP's top legal position in Europe in January to replace outgoing incumbent Eric Herkens came after a period of unrest for the world's biggest computer company. Last September HP found itself embroiled in a boardroom scandal, which saw a number of high-profile HP staff – including chairwoman Patricia Dunn and general counsel Ann Baskins – resign.

Having kept its nose clean during the backdating share options scandal that has hit hundreds of Silicon Valley tech firms and continues to rack up casualties, HP found itself the subject of close scrutiny by the US Government after it launched an investigation into the methods used by HP to hunt down the source of boardroom leaks.

The scandal, which involved HP-hired private investigators falsely assuming identities to obtain phone records, sent shockwaves through the industry and caused HP considerable embarrassment.

Norcini says the company has learned lessons from that episode.

"I was pained by what happened," she says. "It followed from the Enron crisis, which highlighted some real problems in US business. The traditional gatekeepers did not come through so it focused a lot more attention on those who have a societal role to be gatekeepers, those who have obligations that transcend attempts to make money. That is what it means to be a lawyer – if you cannot accept that then you should not be a lawyer."

Norcini joined HP after a seven-year stint at telecoms company Pacific Bell and a number of years as a public prosecutor. She says that having a background in litigation gives a good grounding for a move in-house.

"It is a different style of working – you are oriented to the service of your clients. There are a lot of us – 600 around the world – and we are all embedded in the business."

HP is no newcomer to Europe, having set up operations in the UK in the 1950s and built a team of 115 lawyers in the region since then. Ninety percent of HP's EMEA lawyers are, according to Norcini, hired locally to look after country-specific legal issues. The other 10% look after regional and cross-border issues that affect the whole area.

Although the computer giant commands a huge presence in EMEA with revenues of $10.3bn (£5.2bn) in the region and 43,000 employees, comparatively little of its legal work is outsourced. This, according to Norcini, is because HP likes to keep the bulk of its work in-house.

"Our model is to have a large in-house department, she explains. "We use outside counsel for hardcore expertise and high-volume, low-risk stuff. We probably instruct more than 100 firms in the area, which makes up 30% of our legal budget."

On the occasions when HP does go to outside counsel, it has historically used a wide range of firms across the region, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for antitrust and litigation work as well as Baker & McKenzie and Clifford Chance in the US. However, since Michael Holston, the former Morgan Lewis & Bockius litigation partner recruited by HP in the spring to replace Baskins, kicked off a full formal review of the company's firms, Norcini hopes to follow his lead by conducting a similar exercise in Europe.

"We have a relatively decentralised view of outside counsel at the moment in Europe," says Norcini. "What I would like to see over here is something similar to what Mike is doing in the States. It is important that we establish deeper relationships with a few firms."

Despite having autonomy to develop and change the team in Europe, Norcini looks as if she will be taking a number of her cues from her colleagues in the US. Holston, according to Norcini, is also planning on revitalising HP's pro bono efforts over the next few years. This is something she is eager to apply to her new domain, which is set to grow significantly with HP's recent establishment of new businesses in the region's emerging markets.

"We are growing in the north and south of the region," she says. "Africa is the most rapidly developing market we are in and we already have operations in Nigeria. There is a whole ecosystem in emerging markets – it is something of a challenge to find the right mix of local and international support."

Orchestrating communications across three continents and several different time zones is one of the greatest challenges facing Norcini, who instituted a series of scheduled meetings with her different country-based teams to ensure that she stayed in the loop.

"I schedule things because you cannot leave contact to chance, what with times zones and geographical issues," she says. "The other challenge I face is the continuously changing face of the company, which means that I have to be ready to change the legal department if needs be."

Making sure the legal team fits the business does not necessarily entail structural change, says Norcini, but rather looking at the department from a different perspective. Bringing her lawyers closer to the business and encouraging a more holistic outlook across the region are just as important, if not more so, than reshuffling titles and moving people about.