What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We have been actively participating in issuing some significant regulations for the financial sectors and securities market by Colombia’s Financial Superintendence and the Colombian Securities Markets self-regulatory. These regulations were related to important matters such as advisory activities in the Colombian securities marker and a new regime for large and concentrated exposure in financial institutions.

We have also been working on structuring different deals related to the new commercial integrated model of Corficolombiana and its affiliates — Fiduciaria Corficolombiana and Casa de Bolsa. Additionally, in three other entities, we have implemented advisory activities related to securities market transactions.

We have also worked hard in the post-pandemic permanent implementation of the remote work in the trading desks of Corficolombiana and its two financial affiliates, according to the legal requirements from the authorities.

It is also essential to highlight the legal support that we have given to the significant financial derivatives structures implemented to hedge the exchange and interest rate exposure of Covioriente — one of Corficolombiana’s affiliates, which is a concessionaire in the toll road infrastructure sector.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

Remote working was implemented in our company during the pandemic. It has proven to be a helpful, efficient, and productive way to work. Even post-pandemic, we decided to adopt a hybrid work model.

What can law firms do to improve their service to the legal department?

It is common to find that a lot of the legal work in some law firms is done by junior lawyers that do not have the knowledge and experience required to perform the service required by the clients, even though the clients are paying for more qualified advice. Therefore, I recommend that law firms avoid this practice.