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

SBT has been continuously diversified its production and development of new content and expanding its distribution to its digital platforms. In these last two years, SBT returned to the sports segment, with the purchase of broadcasting rights for CONMEBOL Libertadores – a football competition of great importance in Latin America, Champions League, Europe League, among others. As such, our legal team was a fundamental presence in all stages of such processes, like the validation of proposals, negotiations and formalisation of contracts. These global sports competitions are highly professional, which provides a rich knowledge of the sports market.

Additionally, SBT and Amazon Prime Video have just signed a long-term agreement on licensing and co-production of soap operas. As a result of this agreement, Pollyanna Grows Up, currently on the air on SBT and based on the book written by Eleanor H. Porter in 1915, will also be available on Amazon’s streaming service worldwide. For SBT, this is another strategic step, with the production of regional content with worldwide distribution, which will create many joint licensing opportunities and new co-productions.

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.

In my opinion, for instance, flexibility with fees is highly desirable. Additionally, law firms need to keep up with the innovation movement that companies are going through. My suggestion is that law firms could contribute with original initiatives in the legal area, contributing to the legal department’s success within the company.

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?

We see that the implementation of the business partner concept is already consolidated in the legal market, and is incorporated into the culture of the in-house lawyer. But it is a constant challenge, as law schools do not prepare their students for this.

The legal department has a very important role in the trajectory of achieving objectives and implementing strategies and initiatives of different areas. Legal teams must also provoke concerns, initiate critical discussions of how business is done by the company, not just being reactive. This conduct brings new energy to the team, opening the way for innovative solutions. And when I talk about innovation, I don’t just think about technology, but also about processes and solutions.