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

The teams in Latin America are always involved in distribution agreements, turn around, creation of new legal entities or new products, and board reviews, among others.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

The two main qualities, to be successful in any profession, are courage and discipline. We need courage to do what has to be done and to decide what has to be decided. Then, we need discipline to execute what has been decided.

How have you fostered a closer collaboration between the legal department and your business counterparts?

The legal department has a mission of protecting the company and its executives, but it also has a supporting and enabling function. Thus, the legal department has to build bridges and relationships.

We need to constantly add value to the business, presenting them creative solutions for implementing their projects in compliance with the law. For that, we need to know about not only the law, but also about the strategy of the company, the business and operations, account, and IT, among several others. That is what makes me choose to be an internal lawyer.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

Currently, I manage the pro-bono program for Legal at Zurich Worldwide, except in the US. I am passionate about voluntary work. It is not a normal chain of command, because people are working voluntarily; it is all about incentives and rewarding. This has been a whole new learning curve for me.

I am also passionate about giving back to the society. Having studied at a public university and having had so many career and development opportunities, I am so happy that we have a program to help other people.