About

Empresas La Polar’s legal team is rightly regarded among the finest in Chile’s retail sector, and is led by Alvaro Lavín, a highly experienced chief counsel who was featured in the GC Powerlist: Chile in 2017. Lavín is known as an individual with a wealth of legal ability thanks in part to his experience gained during in-house legal roles with Superintendencia de Quiebras (the National Superintendent of Bankruptcy) and in private practice with Alessandri Abogados. The company operates 38 stores in Chile, accounting for approximately 10% of its retail sector, and maintaining and expanding the company’s market share in this extremely competitive area requires the La Polar legal team to display business acumen as well as legal ability. Meeting these challenges, the team is well-staffed with individuals who possess both commercial and legal attributes. Among others, in-house counsel Valentina Baeza Peña and Gonzalo Javier Valenzuela Mercadal – formerly in-house with Heineken and the Ministry of Health respectively – came in for particular praise for their successful work on a number of strategic projects and for their contribution to the cohesion of the team as a whole. The La Polar legal team is thus well-led, well-staffed and well-drilled as a unit.