About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured?

We work as one team under a regional service delivery model in which we have commercial lawyers who work and support businesses from Cargill in the different countries, acting as primary contacts, leading strategic projects; we also have areas of expertise in food law, environmental, antitrust, labour and employment and corporate secretary. The position of paralegal provides great support to our team being responsible for the contract policy and providing trainings (virtually and in person) to different users/areas of business and reviewing a significant number of specific contracts, which helps lawyers keep focus on strategic matters.

We focused a lot on effective communication and collaboration amongst team members, keeping in contact through the use of technology to share relevant cases from each country, sharing best practices, lessons learned, to learn from what has been good and what could have been done better. Lawyers have monthly conference calls to address commercial and relevant matters on our goals, metrics, and the whole team joins by conference call every two months to discuss relevant matters and updates on the organisation’s overall strategy, the law department’s objectives, trainings and business issues.

Members of our team participate in the leadership teams of businesses, and relevant information is deployed to our team members to achieve alignment.

What geographical area does the team cover and what challenges has it faced when covering multiple jurisdictions in the region?

All businesses operating in Central America, Colombia and specific commercial-contractual relationships in the Caribbean. Some of the challenges we have faced are related to maintain an updated, effective outside counsel docket in the region, challenging firms to act with a regional approach and with the same deep understanding of our businesses no matter the country. It requires for us to have a mind-set of one team and not working in silos, in order to get full advantage of the experiences from each other. Our major challenges are also related to the lack of professionalism, lack of resources, and sometimes lack of knowledge from external/governmental offices with whom we are dealing as a company.

How does the legal team update their skills in regards to advising in the industrial sector?

We keep ourselves informed of what is going on in each country, through internal and external ways. Internally, as we work hand-in-hand with other strategic functions such as corporate affairs, tax, and security, we have access to timely critical information of the country, new legislation, new trends, and we keep close contact with associations and chambers of commerce. In some cases, we approach trade associations in which Cargill is a part of, and promote through trainings, proper discussions, the importance of having competition policies in place and abiding with local legislation on that regard.

How has the legal team fostered an inclusive environment?

We are committed to an inclusive environment, acknowledging our differences and creating the space for everyone to add value through their strengths. One example of how we are doing this, is in our hiring process, we have requested our HR teams to include all universities in the search (no black lists) and to provide curriculums from men and women. It is common that we receive more curriculum from men, however we would start the process, until at least we get representation from both genders.

At the current time, we have a diverse team considering a mix of millennials (five), generation X (eight); women (10), men (three); different personalities which adds so much value to our work dynamic.

Focus on… value

Your Value Proposition Matters! As a law department working with several businesses within Cargill in a geographical region (Central America and Colombia), we need to live by our value proposition and importantly, our business partners – our internal clients, should be the team’s most important critic providing timely feedback and/or recognition. The work that we do has a relevant and positive impact to the strategy fulfilment of our businesses and it is a result of intentional focus to deepen our understanding of the legal and non-legal risks, business needs, commercial strategies, businesses goals to be able to provide trusted advise every day and facilitate their work. As a law department, we are in a privileged seat in which we have a broader view of the organisation’s parts, the strengths, the opportunities, challenges, as we work closely with many areas and we get to spot opportunities to connect with other expertise areas within the organisation to bring knowledge and experience where and when it matters. In my experience, it makes a great difference, when team members participate in business leadership meetings and understand the ‘business talk’, which quickly relates to relevant trends in that industry and is able to speak up and provide value added legal solutions. Our law members have learned to be aware of the value that comes from our interaction with our businesses, so we are mindful of what we say when our opinion and advice is requested and also when it’s not requested. We have learned to make strategic questions to get more context of a situation, think ahead and look for creative, innovative ways to solve a given problem or situation and to take risks. The rule is that the lawyer should not say ‘no’, unless that lawyer has done the homework and it really is a compliance matter which cannot be resolved that way, in which case, we will look for a viable option to that problem. Efforts to deepen our business acumen, discussions around risk calibration, effective risk management, and project management always pays off, considering we are developing our team members with strategic skills to be applied in our day-to-day interaction with businesses. As a conclusion, setting a law department’s value proposition is vital, however, acting and delivering on it every day is what matters to your client. So make sure, your team members commit to it!