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

Considering the infrastructure sector’s scenario last years, legal demands played a prominent role in the Company. Recently, our legal team has been involved in strategic cases, that we can highlight: (i) obtaining court decisions that maintained a highway concession contract in force; (ii) obtaining court decisions that preserved companies’ revenue; (iii) participation in arbitrations involving more than a billion of dollars. I would also like to point out that the Company’s legal department started to develop a pro-bono work, which allows us to give back a little of what we receive to society.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Lawyers need to be completely aligned with the Company’s strategic planning, focusing their work on achieving results and not simply offering the best legal understanding of a given topic. With that, everyone will be pursuing the same goals. The lawyer must also be accessible and always willing to support other business partners.

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 fast-paced world also means a plenty information all the time. Thereby, today’s lawyer needs to focus on the results, keep up to date, and take advantage of technology. The lawyer definitely needs to be a business partner and not be limited to the bureaucratic functions of law.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by other shocks. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

The pandemic brought many learnings, including that we must be more incisive in making risk analyzes and their mitigating actions. Both the Company and the legal department strengthened risk management, in order to be prepared for different scenarios and for the initial strategy failure. This brings more confidence in decisions and less impact when something does not go as initially planned.