Team size: 100+

Major legal advisers: LatamLex, Consortium, ALCOGAL, DLA-Piper (Colombia), Greenberg-Traurig, Latham-Watkins, Davis Polk

What are the most significant cases or transactions you and your team have been involved in?

BAC has been directly and indirectly involved in several significant cases and transactions in the past year. One of the most relevant includes the purchase (and subsequent spin-off) of Mutli-Financial Group, located in Panamá. Our legal team played a pivotal role in Avianca’s emergence from Chapter 11. Additionally, it has provided continuous support in addressing the multiple challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The most significant transaction we have been involved in has been the double-demerger of our holding company — BAC Holding International Corp, from Banco de Bogotá and Grupo Aval, and its subsequent double-listing in the Panamanian and Colombian Stock Exchanges.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

The in-house legal role will continue to progress into becoming a business partner. The general counsel can achieve that position by actively participating in the decision-making process and helping the company achieve its objective through a deep understanding of its goals and challenges, championing integrity and customer-centricity. Adequate corporate governance and transparency in communication are fundamental in the dialogue with key stakeholders and between executives and external counsel. Finally, adopting a creative and solution-oriented approach helps drive innovation while mitigating risks. In order to enhance those strategic competencies, in-house lawyers will have to continue to maximise efficiency by resorting to digitalisation and legal operations departments.

In a changing financial landscape, how does the company remain competitive against new phenomena such as fintech and blockchain, and how does the legal team assist with this?

Dynamism and innovation have been key drivers of our competitive advantage in an industry that has lately been significantly disrupted. Our legal team has the scope to help the business by developing an understanding and tackling critical legal issues, challenges, and opportunities related to new services, technologies, and business models. We are continuously engaged in finding plausible solutions to the many challenges inherent to innovation; we also assist in negotiations of value-creating deals with fintech and other players.