Editor’s Note: Mariana Páez  Robles Martinez provided this interview on the basis of their employment with Eutelsat Americas at the time. 

Can you please give us an idea of the work your team has done recently?

As a general counsel leading the legal activity on the continent and offices over the Americas, the challenge and focus has been to implement new products and solutions that allow the final customer to have more options within the Eutelsat group. We aim to provide not only flexibility, but also legal certainty while engaging with the company. For this purpose, the legal team in the Americas has been actively working on creating the legal structures, engaging high profile partnerships, acquiring assets, enabling operation, and securing the permits to allow the Group to offer these new options to the clients within the several regulatory frameworks all over the continent while having a strong compliance vision.

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

Definitively, the pandemic has forced the legal teams all around the globe to sharpen the legal criteria in the legal forms related to contract enforcement but also in the procedures to follow to achieve healthy and long-term relationships in an uncertain economic environment. However, the pandemic also ensured that as lawyers, we took a huge and frankly very needed, leap in the way that the legal in-house teams traditionally do business. We have certainly achieved many of our goals that may not have happened, had we not been in a situation that required creativity and practical thinking.

Combining these lessons with modern technologies allowed my team and lawyers alike to integrate the ever-changing fast paced events at the most opportune time to the legal profession.

Of course, this is a work in progress, however, the human factor of having a high-performing team duly committed and motivated is essential to apply the creation of new business and constant efficiency to the challenges ahead.

Even in the best-case scenario, Covid is likely to have far-reaching ramifications. How are you safeguarding the long-term health of the business?

The pandemic has caused the legal team in the Americas to not only to take a deep look at the contracts that we have in place, but also made us rethink and restructure many of the incorporated clauses that have never been triggered by the occurrence of an event.

Broadly speaking, the greatest lesson of these times has been resilience and flexibility. These are qualities of utmost importance in an ever-changing and fast developing industry, solidified especially through this time. The pandemic impacted lawyers in a way that should cause us to plan as much as we can and have alternatives to these plans. We must consider foreseen and unforeseen circumstances in the most creative and comprehensive way to lessen our risks and those of our clients. This way we provide legal certainty, but also likely paths we can tow to be assured of income stability and sustainable relationships.