How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

The legal teams are now required to be more partners of the business than ever, with the expectation that the legal teams will help the businesses to maintain its pace and that risks are mitigated. I encourage to maintain a robust compliance system and continuous monitoring of potential risks to detect risks as in the labor laws, data protection, and AML, and stay always informed and up to date on what’s is coming. Making sure that a complete methodology exist to maintain an on going business in case of crisis and that data security are protected, the legal department can effectively manage crises ensuring compliance, attenuating risks, and maintain operational continuity.    

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with Mexico’s data protection laws? 

Innovating from the Legal department is absolutely possible. Old times where attorneys and in house teams were administrators of documents are gone, and attorneys manage knowledge not documents. Making an assessment of what is needed from a legal tech perspective is a must to avoid falling in unnecessary tools for the business needs, so defining the objective to implement digital in the legal department should be the north star along with the pain points detected, as well as implementing change management methodology within the legal department and involve key stakeholders from other teams. I consider from my position that a start for every legal department would be e-signature, CLM, data and metrics for the legal department, legal research platform, and integration with existing systems such as ERP and Salesforce. 

In your opinion, what are the main trends that are salient in your country currently?   

We are now leaving in a challenging time for legal teams as the economic recovery after pandemic boosted nearshoring in Mexico, embrace digital and mobile connectivity, inflation and high rates, and adapt to increased risks such as anti money laundering and cyber security. The world is changing constantly for good or for bad and in house legal teams are required to promote the business and facilitate opportunities while detecting and preventing risks, so Mexico’s dynamic environment requires that attorneys are up to date, ready to react in case of contingencies and adapt to technological changes and new trends.