What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Undoubtedly, recent regulatory reforms in Ecuador, including the enforcement of the sanctioning framework outlined in the Organic Law on Data Protection, have prompted the team to work intensively on the full implementation of these regulations as an area of data protection, which entails working with all areas of the company. At compliance level, we have had to address challenges at the level of specific controls, promote awareness and training on various integrity matters.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Legal teams that work within the compliance and data protection departments must develop technological skills, putting them in a better position to validate risks, as well as comprehensively understand matters related to the processing of personal data. We are currently seeing this trend as more and more lawyers are understanding technical / big data language or are becoming certified data management professionals (CDMP).

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

The regulations or main legislative changes that have most impacted Ecuador have been the Personal Data Protection Law, which is similar to European GDPR, and despite the absence of an authority, regulatory implementation is necessary and mandatory. There were also important legislative changes around compliance in 2021, especially in the Ecuadorian Criminal Code, the impact of which has been enhanced the operations of compliance departments across Ecuador.