About

Legal director Diana Daza Vallejos leads the in-house legal team of four lawyers, a contracts assistant and an administrative assistant at the Colombian division of SGS, one of the world’s largest professional technical inspection, verification, analysis and certification service companies. Daza has more than 10 years of experience on private and public contract assessments and is in charge of the most sensitive contingencies, corporate and compliance matters for SGS’s companies. Edwar Castiblanco, projects lawyer, is in charge of providing legal advice during the execution of the most relevant and long term projects of the companies whilst lawyer Francisco Roa is in charge of draft litigation documents and follow-ups with external counsel. Junior lawyer Katherine Quintero is in charge of following up on labour matters which are completely outsourced, and also supports Daza on corporate matters. Contract assistant Francy Nausa is in charge of following up on the signature of documents and guarantees the accuracy of the contracts files, whilst administrative assistant Sandra Melo supports the legal area with different functioning matters. Since 2012, when the legal department was first created, the company and the area have grown substantially. From being comprised of two companies, 15 consortiums and no more than 10 offices, SGS in Colombia is now made up of six companies, 41 consortiums and 32 offices between field sites and labs. Daza highlights that ‘these situations have demanded organic growth within the legal department and also, expertise from the lawyers and specialisation when performing duties’, adding, ‘the legal team can now provide advice, understanding the business itself’. Demonstrating this comfortably, the legal team recently supported a number of significant company projects including a project concerning two of the largest public private partnerships in Colombia, and another regarding the inspection of the supermarkets scales and fuel pumps granted by the authority that regulates consumer protection as well as many other projects. SGS has, over the years, become a major force within its market in Colombia and this success is owed in no small part to its outstanding legal team.