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

We have been dealing and negotiating with authorities for settlement agreements, such as environmental authorities and federal prosecutors, litigation against traditional communities, re-location of industrial plants, purchase and sale of assets and companies, such as the announced potential divestment of Imerys in the paper industry.

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?

The basis of the relationship, mainly with strategic law firms acting in partnership, is transparency and sharing company’s values. The external counsel needs to understand the values in order to provide solutions to the company, understanding the profile of risks and feasible solutions.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use? Examples could be greater flexibility in billing, a more expansive suite of services offered, more transparency in reporting ESG statistics etc.

I would certainly like to see law firms focusing on providing more effective solutions to the companies, based on market practices and creative thinking, based on their knowledge of the application of the law, instead of what is solely written in the law.

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

For me, the best way to build strong relationships with business partners is to listen and understand their needs and pains, providing assistance in solving their challenges in an ethical and compliant way, and yet have an operational and focused move. Also, we need to be diligent and move fast, in addition to being transparent on the difficulties you may find along the way.