Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Given the recent changes that have impacted our industry, we have implemented within our Business Unit different practices and procedures related to Contracting as well as general Legal support in which the innovation and effectiveness in the use of technology is key and paramount to implement such changes. Some of these practices and procedures are aimed to establish one set of rules and guidelines that are common to different task across different regions. One effort is a Law Manual of Operations where its objective is to have simple, aligned, documented and less customised processes and templates to allow all team members to support different matters in the different sub regions, regardless of the in-house counsel location. This is the way of becoming a true regional and full online counsel in a big communication company.

In the path of making this effort the use of online data bases and repositories is a must since all need to be online to be multiregional and applicable to different jurisdictions, bearing in mind that we have presence all over LATAM and have local entities in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, PR, Panama, Brazil and Mexico. Moreover, this initiative will allow all team members within LATAM to understand the different practices of the region related to Contracting as well as general Legal support. It is also a vehicle to have less in-country customizations and more simple templates and processes, aligned in the entire region.

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?

I think some of the key developments related our work in the next few years will be related to the use of AI tools (such as contract management, calendar, etc) in our day-to-day business. Every day, developers and software company are investing in creating new apps, tools or others important AI that helps our jobs, we need to understand that AI is not here to replace us but to helps us, it would be paramount that the new generation of in-house counsels understand and use these tools to add value to their works and that will be the difference in the next couples of years.

What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in in Colombia?

Regarding Contact Centers and Unified Communication solutions that is our core business there have been different changes that have affected our industry, all the solutions now are being based on the cloud, thus, we have been focusing for several years now on this option. A key differentiator of Avaya is to provide a customised cloud journey for each customer, at its own paste, integrating on premises as well as cloud solutions.

In addition, i think one of the key trends that impact and benefit our industry is that presential work is no longer 100% required, people are also effective working from home, thus, our communications solutions will enhance and benefit this change on the workers mentality and environment.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?

As mentioned, enhancing connectivity thru powerful solutions as our solutions and the saving in transport, displacement, etc, is something that Avaya have been working from years now, we are commitment to this effort and will sustain these practices within our company.

What steps do you take to ensure the successful integration and adoption of new technologies among your team members?

As mentioned before, we a communication and technology company, therefore, the usage of technology is part of our DNA, in the fulfilment of our role we always use technology, for having meetings through our communications tools, when we store documents and information in our cloud-based solutions, when we use our softphones to communicate internally and externally. I could say without been mistaken that in our company the usage of technology has been always a day-to-day basis situation but after the pandemic, it has been increasing and will keep increasing hopefully.