About

Claudia Politanski has been integral in the building of Itaú Unibanco’s legal department; a team of 721 professionals, which is widely recognised for its technical excellence and management expertise by peers. Politanski has drawn particular notice for her role in elevating the importance of the legal profession within Itaú Unibanco. She has created a structure of highly qualified legal professionals that has the ability to replace each other within a range of roles, given their variety of knowledge and expertise in different areas of the bank’s operations. Politanski designed this structure to ensure that the bank had constant support, but also to keep the lawyers interested in their work and ‘avoid potential loss of talent’. Additionally, Politanski was able to successfully implement a culture in which the lawyers at Itaú Unibanco are now considered to be business partners; she describes that they ‘go hand-in-hand with internal clients to build the best legal solutions’. Politanski has also been key to the development of ‘innovative internship programs which attract the best junior-level professionals from top universities across South America’. The financial sector has been under scrutiny from regulators and the media in recent years, there Politanski has been crucial to the bank’s approach to both legal and reputational risk management. Another way that she has shielded Itaú Unibanco from undue risk, has been to improve the bank’s approach towards alternative dispute resolution; aiming to stay clear of the ‘increasing level of court proceedings in Brazil in recent years’.