Focus on the company, the in-house legal team and risk management

Rubén Henríquez Núñez is a lawyer graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile. He holds a master’s degree in administrative law from the same university and a master’s degree in corporate compliance from Universidad Complutense in Madrid. He is the legal and regulatory affairs manager, secretary of the board of directors, and compliance officer of Australis Seafoods — a salmon producer in Chile owned by the Joyvio Group. He is also a director of SalmonChile, a trade association of salmon producers in Chile.

To address the need to comply with risk, crime prevention, antitrust, environmental, and regulatory requirements, Australis Seafoods’ legal team has implemented an integrated compliance model for the past two years. Our objective is to take control of our risks in various areas, which include not only those of criminal exposure and free competition but also those related to environmental and regulatory compliance. To do so, we have relied on a single execution and management structure for legal, regulatory and compliance issues. This tool allows us to be more effective and efficient and to simplify procedures. It also paves the way for incorporating new disciplines without losing the road already travelled.

In addition to generating efficiency, the integrated model supports activities aimed at achieving better performance in governance, compliance, and transparency, addressing issues from a preventive rather than reactive point of view.

Together with the team, we had been anticipating that we were reaching a turning point: keeping to the traditional work model with the risk of not being able to respond to new demands or undertake a change in the way we understand how legal issues are managed.

Our first major strategic decision was to set our main objective for the organisation, incorporating the associated legal risks that impact the company in the business decision-making process. This is a significant step because it confronted us with questions about the actual effectiveness of our work up to that point and the visibility we had for the organisation as an internal legal team.

Australis Seafoods’ activities are carried out in marine ecosystems and are based on the use of natural resources. The sustainability of those ecosystems is heavily dependent on prevention and control of the effects our activities may cause in a context marked by the climate change crisis. Consequently, our management model provides us with an effective control tool that allows us to actively identify and manage the sustainability risks of our business, prevent them, and demonstrate compliance. We conclude that by incorporating adequate management models and adding organisational will, legal departments can help their companies to follow business strategies and objectives while mitigating legal and reputational risks.