How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

I believe that a company’s values function as a moral guide for a company and its employees to decide how to act and interact with the challenges eventually faced. To build trust, such values must be reflected not only to employees, but in all of the company’s relations with clients, partners, and services providers, including law firms. Law firms are a strategic resource who provide guidance and shape important decisions, internal policies, habits, and behaviours, which are intrinsically connected with the company’s values and organisational identity. The choice of law firm is crucial to build a sustainable business aligned with the company’s values and objectives; lawyers will be truly able to provide tailor-made orientation if they deeply understand what is important for the success of a business model and the company’s culture. Not only must external lawyers be aligned with company’s values but, as working in partnership with Banco Next, the team of lawyers must be aware of the new solutions implemented by the market and new trends to challenge conventional thinking and bring true innovative responses, as well as preserving and creating value to the business.

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?

In the future, technological advancements for legal departments should focus on effectively bringing value to relationships with clients. At Banco Next, we value technological excellency and outstanding client services. Along with the automation of operational activities and standardisation, which certainly help cost control and reduce delivery terms, data driven legal departments should be the future. Cross-linking of data information by means of tools with more analytical potential of regulatory, judiciary and client behaviours will be crucial to design better strategies and to obtain competitive advantages via conflict avoidance, anticipation, and quick resolution, optimising legal deliveries and the search for root causes of problems. In this sense, the implementation of chatbots, robotisation and artificial intelligence were important advancements for the development of an assertive legal management team and the improvement of client relationships. This acts jointly with other initiatives more widespread within legal departments for documentation, such as visual law and legal design with accessibility for more simplicity and transparency, “lawgile” methodologies for better controls and effective rapid responses, and regulatory with jurisprudence monitoring systems to get ahead with changes.