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?

This topic is a top priority for us at Janssen. Choosing outside counsel with similar values to Janssen is critical as they ultimately represent us and must adhere to the principles of Our Credo, our DNA, as well as the Code of Business Conduct. We also encourage each of the law firms to have D&I initiatives that could be measured. I will always reconsider and disqualify a firm that does not act ethically and fairly.

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 my view, the technological advancements that are affecting our profession for the better are artificial intelligence (AI) and the tools for connecting the parties, regardless of where you are in the globe. AI will help us a lot to focus more and more on strategic and relevant themes for the company we work for. This gives us an even greater opportunity, as in-house counsel, to add more value to the business and place the Legal Department as a more effective business partner. In addition, the AI will be a source of relevant information for our day-to-day work. In regard to tools, physical borders practically cease to exist in the pandemic – and after the pandemic. Most Brazilian courts, government institutions and private sector, adopted video and phone calls as a real meeting place to decide and advance all the subject; these phenomena optimise our time.

What I found most helpful was the AI. Examples of this at J&J were the development of a chatbot that answers basically all questions related to routine contracts and the implementation of visual law in contracts, which brought, respectively, more hours allocated by the team to relevant topics other than contracts and speed up the process analysis and contract electronic signatures.