About

Amira Chammas oversees a team of mixed professionals including seven lawyers, two interns and one legal assistant for Formitex, a Brazilian company with operations in several areas including papers, laminates, chemicals, infrastructure and logistics. A firm believer that lawyers should be part of the core business, Chammas and her team are tasked with tackling the challenges related to both legal matters and market forces that affect doing business in Brazil, which Chammas describes as having a ‘litigation culture’. In order to combat these issues she has introduced and developed methods to provide guidelines for the wider business and outside counsel in anticipating the company’s legal defences. These guidelines help bring a more efficient and faster flow of information to the outside counsel who work on the relevant case, meaning that legal response can be quicker. A capable and proactive planner, Chammas has been in charge of implementing technical forums to discuss the company’s goals and what kind of adjustments are in place to avoid future legal issues. In her previous in-house role at Walmart Brazil, Chammas was responsible for the implementation of the legal management system in the department, which was created for 100 lawyers and paralegals, and with an enormous number of open cases, both judicial and administrative procedures. Chammas appreciates her external suppliers having a ‘deep knowledge’ of the business and this extends to relationships with outside counsel, stating; they should try to ‘have a good understanding of the core business of the companies and the market’. A results-focussed in-house lawyer with abilities extending beyond the legal realm, Chammas’ main priority is to support the business and is entrusted to take part in all important strategic decisions, including launching new products and marketing campaigns.