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

More recently, we have been focused in restructuring our legal department, to improve our approach towards our business partners, setting goals in line with the company’s strategy, standardisation of processes, creation of policies, auditing of litigation to reduce the number of cases and clean up provisions, mapping of deposits and judicial appeals aiming to bring cash to the company. Also, we started replacing and implementing a new legal system and digital signature of documents, adding technology tools to improve management, and provide more security and agility in the internal process. We have implemented the average cost model for the provisioning of lawsuits, in the labour area, with a 30% reduction in the balance of provision for labour contigencies, and have created standard minutes, public instruments and terms of adhesion to reduce bureaucracy in the relationship with suppliers, making the formalisation of contracts more agile. Lastly, we have reduced the cost of legal suppliers by around 50%, by implementing a new format for remuneration of external offices with a fixed price per subject and maximum payment term.

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?

I believe it is extremely important to choose external partners that are aligned with the company’s values. This facilitates communication, increases productivity and the likelihood of a successful relationship.

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?

In my view, a corporate legal department needs to know the business in-depth, create alliances and be prepared to know and discuss the company’s strategy. Communication should be light and easy to understand. The internal legal department must build alternatives, instead of creating barriers to the company’s projects, scoring risks when necessary. Action must be preventive, using the most varied technological resources to speed up processes, make management efficient and stratify data.