Team size: 14

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The main challenge as a legal leader has been to incorporate in the management, an area specialised in data analysis and process automation, to generate efficiencies and make decisions with more information and speed. This in turn has allowed us to provide timely feedback to our clients so that they can make improvements that will help them avoid any legal, reputational, or sanction risks in the future. Another challenge for a legal leader is that new technologies that are advancing on a large scale. That implies that we must look for and motivate our teams to use better working tools. The “return to normality” is also a current challenge, since it forces us to understand our workers and their personal lives in a more integral way, it also means managing and understanding in which processes virtuality is more efficient and in which aspects it is more effective to work face-to-face.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

The most talked about technological advancement today is artificial intelligence. As managers of legal teams, we have a professional responsibility to be at the forefront of new systems that will help us manage our work with greater productivity and efficiency, such as organising data, organising litigation data, processes and consultations to make better decisions and provide feedback to our clients. Another important development is the environment of cryptocurrencies and the metaverse; we need to understand the legal impact of this new form of exchange and social life.

On the other hand, we do not need to become experts in artificial intelligence or technology to take advantage of other digital tools at our disposal. We started our restructuring by implementing dashboards with the main activities and tasks of each of the programmes in charge of the legal area, once the tasks were ordered we implemented indicators and automatic alerts, always within a discipline of continuous improvement.

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why?

There are a number of business-related causes that I am concerned about. Firstly, regulatory compliance, we are in a constantly evolving legal framework. A major risk that we corporate lawyers face is the adoption of regulations that may be created with good intentions but may ultimately be detrimental to the market and consumers. There needs to be a more thorough and complete analysis of the economic impact which has thus far not been carried out.

Secondly, technology and data protection, the same technological advances which are a great tool for lawyers, can also generates new crimes and legal risks for the company. That is why lawyers must constantly update ourselves on digital standards and technologies such as privacy and information security.

And finally, we must take our corporate social responsibility very seriously, today’s consumers demand that companies and suppliers act responsibly.