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

The most significant transaction that the legal team has participated in in recent times was undoubtedly the acquisition, by the then-named Copagaz (currently Copaenergia), of Liquigás, whose closing took place in December 2020. Liquigás was a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobras and occupied the second position in the liquefied petroleum gas distribution market in terms of market share, while Copagaz occupied the fourth position. The acquisition of Liquigás was preceded by the entry of Itaúsa, the holding company of the Itaú group, into the share capital of Copagaz, which already required an enormous corporate and corporate governance restructuring. With the acquisition of Liquigás, Copaenergia became the market leader, jumping from a turnover of R$1.2bn, to currently R$12bn, with the number of employees quadrupling and reaching approximately 4,000 people. The transaction involved not only complex corporate and contractual issues, but also regulatory and competition issues, since it was contested by competitors before CADE – the Brazilian antitrust agency. Soon after the acquisition of Liquigás and aiming to capture greater synergies arising from the acquisition, the legal team led the entire process involving the incorporation of Liquigás by Copaenergia, work that involved, among others, the creation of 49 mirror branches.

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?

Artificial intelligence: it will support research, document review, writing texts, answering queries, drafting pleadings and other activities. It will drastically reduce bureaucratic, repetitive or more usual and routine tasks, allowing the legal team to focus on increasingly strategic tasks.

Data analytics: automates and leverages the construction of analytical models that allow identifying patterns and making decisions with minimal human intervention. It will be used, for example, in transforming data from the portfolio of litigation processes into information, and the information into intelligence, allowing the legal department to act strategically in preventing litigation, for example, by identifying the root causes of the most voluminous litigation processes. or impactful, and creation of prevention plans.

Contract management software: will support the entire process of negotiating, drafting and managing contracts electronically, quickly, and also with the support of artificial intelligence. It will support the process of tracking and searching for contracts. It will help you control deadlines and contractual obligations and reduce litigation.

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?

Digital Literacy: ability to use technological tools to increase the efficiency of legal work.

Commercial awareness: deeply knowing the business in which it operates, its Strategic Planning, culture, goals and objectives, as well as contributing proactively with concrete actions aimed at achieving them.

Communication: the corporate lawyer must always improve his communication skills so that he can, for example, serve as a “sap key” between the hermetic and arid legal language typical of the legal area, for a language that is easy for everyone in the company to understand.

Focus: it is essential for corporate lawyers to avoid “pit falls”, expand their negotiating capacity and anticipate and prevent risks.

Creativity: allows the legal team to stop being the team that just vetoes projects and initiatives, to the team that contributes with routes and strategies to make projects and initiatives viable.