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

Negotiation and contract review with customer for more than US$30m; Coordination of legal thesis and claims for potential saving of about US$20m; Merger by acquisition of the company.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

This is the most important item to be considered when choosing to work with external lawyers. Company’s values are the essence of it, and it is essential that, not only employees, but also third parties and suppliers should be aligned with company’s values to allow it to grow and spread its values consistently. For instance, if one of company’s value is Integrity, how is it possible to have an external lawyer that does not act with integrity, when most of the times company is granting him powers to represent and speak on behalf of it? Not possible at all! Based on that, it is a 100% likely that I would reconsider firms I works with based on such alignment.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

We cannot be a pure lawyer, but rather a business focus person with the advantage of having the knowledge from a law degree. Contrary to popular beliefs, having more facility to view the risks from a legal and compliance standpoint cannot be used to create barriers to a negotiation or any situation where a lawyer in involved, but much more to generate a risk alert and find alternatives to reduce eventual risks and exposures. That being said, an in-house lawyer should always be concerned in understanding business strategy and finances behind it, so that they can be prepared to deliver the results expected from a lawyer without jeopardising the business.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

Although not necessarily in 2022 only, the changes in the Brazilian oil and gas market with Petrobras divestment would be one of the main changes that impacted the area.

The Petrobras divestment plan allowed for new companies to join a market that was previously a monopoly, and with the BID rules and T&Cs practically standardised. This is a tremendous achievement, and, with it, new customers and potential new customers entered the market with their own rules and T&Cs, requiring in-house legal departments to think outside the box and adjust to new conditions and discussions on T&C’s and customer policies, being a true business partner for internal team, but also to customers by understanding their needs and aligning the discussions to attend their needs on a win-win conversation.