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

The DS Smith legal department in Portugal is involved in the legal support of the three business areas of DS Smith Group in Portugal: recycling, paper and packaging. This business operates in a circular and integrated manner. The legal department aims to support our internal clients to accomplish DS Smith purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world. As such, the team is involved in all relevant projects, and in the most recent investment project of €145m, DS Smith started in Viana Paper mill. This investment demonstrated DS Smith’s commitment to growth and sustainability, with increased capacity and improved environmental performance.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

After the Covid-19 pandemic period, there was an important and immediate impact in the use of applications for online meetings such as “Teams”, which have gradually become the norm in terms of holding meetings and, especially, for in-house lawyers to negotiate international contracts, and to be present in the business partners meetings. This brought the challenge of closing contracts at long distance. The use of the electronic signature is now the most common way to sign contracts and documents, which allows flexibility to business partners location, facilitating the work of the legal team. These improves in-house lawyers and business partners efficiency and productivity.

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

In order to be successful in the relationship with the business the first thing the in-house lawyer needs is to know the business and the business needs. Only if the in-house lawyer knows the business and the business goals, the in-house lawyer will be seen has part of the team. An in-house lawyer, in order to be successful, needs to communicate with clarity, anticipate risks, be a planner and strategic thinker, being aligned with business expectation. At DS Smith, in order for the in-house counsel to be trusted, he needs to follow DS Smith values: be caring; be challenging; be trusted; be responsive and be tenacious!