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

Our department has gone through many challenges and is looking for innovative solutions to further strengthen ties with business partners and increase results. Relevant projects were carried out recently, highlighting the acquisition of Kangu, a company in the logistics segment, which was the largest M&A deal ever to take place in the Mercado Livre, successfully concluded in the 3 countries where it was present, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, and has generated many gains from the operation.

A challenging negotiation was also the agreement between Mercado Livre and Gol Linhas Aéreas for six aircrafts dedicated to the company’s operation, so that deliveries arrive faster in the north and northeast regions of the country. The department challenged itself to find the most efficient and appropriate solution, focusing on operational and legal issues in the airline industry.

Legal support for a business that has grown rapidly, demands an available, fast, and prepared team that finds legal solutions for disruptive economic activities. It is on this basis that the team is able to support the continuous improvement of the e-commerce platform and the assortment available to consumers. Additionally, there is a constant search for the development and use of technological tools that facilitate interaction with other areas and generate efficiencies in the team’s work.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

The use of technology in the legal departments has always been a challenge. Currently, the tools available in the market are very similar to each other and we are looking for something innovative and more efficient, especially to measure the work carried out and to enable a more strategic action. Such solutions must be easy to use and understand, adding to the possibility of integration with other systems, for several countries, with different languages. Systems that serve as repositories and alerts are the presupposition of a minimally organized legal department, and the ideal is to add tools that generate documents and answer recurring queries, eliminating repetitive and minor work.

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?

A corporate legal team must be a protagonist and a true business partner, generating results for the company. For this, in-house lawyers must know well the company’s objectives, results and the activity performed, so that they can create opportunities and solutions that go far beyond legal issues. In this perspective, the corporate lawyer must be part of strategy design, seeking solutions and new businesses. It is desired a more proactive than reactive thinking and with contributions, that are measurable and transformed into numbers that positively impact the company’s financial results.