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

The hospitality industry has been working hard and fast to adapt to our new normal. Amid new challenges, such as insurance coverage, financing and safety, tourism continues to pick up. Our team works in Latin America, helping our hotels to achieve the best possible guest experience, while working with owners and franchisees developing new hotels in the region.

If you have worked in other countries, what are the main challenges unique to operating as an in-house counsel in your current location?

I work in Latin America and the Caribbean, and our region presents particular challenges, especially as our industry emerges from this most recent pandemic. In my opinions, issues such as complex alliances, ever evolving privacy regulations around the world, ethical and compliance challenges, and the increasing requirement for in-house counsel to act globally while minimising costs and narrowing the gap between legal and business, are some of the most pressing tasks at hand.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

I think of my generation as people who can live in two parallel worlds. One that is digital, adapting to changes in technology and constantly improving skills to navigate new environments, and the other that is still analogic. The latter includes soft skills and human interaction, which includes exchanging correspondence on paper. Being tech savvy and leveraging social media platforms is ever more useful and can even be fun, but I think it would be a mistake for lawyers to forget about the importance of face-to-face negotiations and other personal and trust-gaining interactions, or how emotions play a role in business. In my opinion, with the changes we are witnessing today, it is all about maintaining an ideal balance between both worlds.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

In-house counsels need to think holistically. Lines between legal and business issues are usually blurry, and all parts of a deal are intimately interconnected. As such, lawyers and business partners are simply parts of the same team trying to make good things happen for the benefit of the company. Emphasising the importance of the whole and not the individual parts is the only way to build relationships, generate trust, and ultimately to amplify the company’s value.