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

The company is experiencing a transformation in its core business and the legal department has been essential to support this journey. The legal team was fully involved in several different projects, in the coordination or legal support to the business. We worked actively in the acquisition of an isolated productive unit of Estaleiro Atlantico Sul, in the Port of Suape, Pernambuco, through an auction in a judicial recovery lawsuit. Also, our team participated in the legal procedures of the construction of two sets of pushers and barges for 700 containers in Rio Maguari shipyard, located in Belém with delivery expected to be in 2025. Moreover, we were part of a corporate reorganisation of the local group of companies and surrounding tasks that involves on the labour, tax, civil, and regulatory sides. Lastly, we supported the business in the opening of a warehouse in Cajamar, São Paulo and Suape, Pernambuco. Both facilities are strategically located near the main markets for fast-moving consumer goods and were the first assets following the diversification of the company’s activities.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

Certainly. Due to the total lack of predictability about the changes brought by the pandemic, the legal department gave full support to the business and started to participate more frequently in the group’s strategic decisions, evaluating its legality. A successful example was that the local company won a national award for having the most consistent teleworking practices during the pandemic and the internal lawyers took part in this implementation, since the beginning of this project, even without a national rule about teleworking.

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 way internal legal departments interact with their companies has significantly changed through the years. This has led to cascading the company’s commitments, policies, code of ethics and values to external lawyers that interact with the internal legal team. Topics of the ESG agenda, as a strict governance, equality, respect to fundamental labour rights and constructive employee relations are unnegotiable in our view.

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?

To be successful, a modern corporate legal team needs to understand the business where it is inserted, not only legally, but technically. In addition to it, they will be immersed in a proactive solution environment, not a reactive one, and they need to understand the financial numbers, market trends and knowhow, to read them in a legal context for the benefit of the company. All this considering an internal environment that has control of all the legal data necessary for the correct decision making.