Team size: 14

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved the way your legal team works and did not come at a huge cost?

When I joined the company there were observations in the structural organisation and planning of activities which created delays in our daily operations and recurring deadlines. We decided to implement a new corporate governance model and to divide the team by specialities, delegating, and give specific responsibilities to lawyers, which favoured quick decision making. Furthermore, we innovated by sending excel forms to clients with the minimum requirements for preparing contracts and through the correspondence option we were able to prepare generic contracts at the same time, significantly reducing turnaround times. We also invested efforts in document models, establishing standard processes, procedures, instructions, and guidelines to define with clients the flowchart of recurring deliverables. We worked with our team on the innovation of a legal software implementing a digital service catalogue that allows customers to better track their requests through tickets and provides the option of verification within the deadlines according to established agreements.

What are some of the key developments that have affected your business over the past year?

Some key developments that have affected the legal services business in recent years include the digitisation of legal processes, the implementation of new data protection regulations, increased global competition and changes in commercial policies.

How do you think the internal legal role will evolve in the coming years?

The profession is changing with technology, growing specialisations, and systematisation of activities. As well as the development of artificial intelligence, considering that it will increase the reasoning and ingenuity of professionals, it will create new opportunities in the legal profession with creativity, greater technological prowess, managing to improve things by freeing up the most routine tasks. It will innovate solutions to classic problems and completely transform the traditional legal system.

Do you use any legal technology products and, if so, for what areas of your work do you find them most useful?

Together with the legal team, we have worked on the presentation of a step-by-step guide to requesting a service using the Jira Service Management platform, making available some very practical instructions to resolve the most frequent requests immediately. Our service catalogue is the main communication tool to our customers. Through it, we can explain what each service is about, what we need from you to start the service and what the outcome will be. The services are grouped into 12 sections that represent our specialities. These are: Institutional Relations, Contracts, Labour, Vehicles and Machinery, Rural Property, Urban Property, Intellectual Property, Corporate, General Legal Advice, Judicial or Administrative Proceedings, Insurance, and Environmental. The legal technology we use with our clients is useful because it increases productivity, we can better control the processes and reduce the time in the execution, which increases our competitiveness in the market.