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? 

When I joined the company, I learned we were a very small team to assist and advise diverse territories throughout LatAm countries with different needs, urgencies, cultures, and initiatives. One of the first steps I took to develop efficiency and flexibility — without any expense, just hard teamwork — was to create a series of new templates for the variety of contracts that the different functions of the company frequently requested. As we work for other jurisdictions but, in general, under the same business structures and similar legal frames, we aimed to standardise the engagements of our company whenever possible, giving our internal customers a chance to adapt the templates if necessary. The key to our improved templates is to have an adjustable chart that allows users to include all the substantial information about the contract and then keep the terms and conditions clauses unchanged.  

Once we had most of our templates drafted, we created a repository in a shared folder, allowing every company’s associate to access and download the templates they need when they are in need, simplifying the access and making them autonomous, not dependent on our function to provide them with a template for each case.  

This change, which seems simple, represents a shift in mindset since it implies greater efficiency in processes and time savings while enabling users to rapidly advance with third parties in negotiating their contracts. It also reduces unnecessary iterations in the legal area. In contrast, our area can provide a better service by having more time for each specific case and, at the same time, contributing to projects with more excellent added value. 

What are some of the key developments (legal, geopolitical, or otherwise) that have affected your business over the past year?  

This past year has been fraught with significant local and regional challenges, once the Covid-19 pandemic began its remission stage, leaving profound impacts in some sectors. An example of this has been the prolonged effect on global supply chains, which forced us in various Latin American countries to develop commercial and legal strategies to service our customers in keeping the supply on time and avoid liability derived from non-compliance with contracts. We also find some countries in the region that have intensified their protectionist trade policies, representing an increase in operational risks, which ultimately leads to an increase in costs. Finally, inflation above historical average levels in most of the region’s countries has also implied challenges by multiplying the need to renegotiate contractual conditions. 

Do you use any ‘legal tech’ products, and if so, for which areas of your work do you find them most useful? 

I find of great value-added the use of two legal tech products. One of them is not necessarily legal tech but is extremely useful: it is the electronic signature. It has represented a big change to our regional organisation because we work with functional approvers and signatories along LatAm countries. In the past, signing forms or agreements with wet signatures or even scanned signatures could mean days or weeks, now it is a matter of minutes, with people in different jurisdictions signing at the same time. The other legal tech we find fruitful is our third-party risk management platform, which provides tools for due diligence, monitoring, and archiving, allowing us to have everything in the same room, providing easy access and traceability.