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The US-headquartered, global industrial company Harsco Corporation recently found itself faced with a challenging situation, whereby one of its important operations in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais was shut down for two months due to the absence of an environmental permit. ‘The legal team took leadership in the interaction with environmental authorities and after a tough negotiation process that involved many legal, technical and political discussions, we manage to sign a term of adjustment of conduct (TAC) that allowed operations to resume while a corrective environmental permit process was ongoing’, says senior regional counsel and compliance professional Eurídice Mason. ‘After that, legal team gave great support to environmental operations, partnering closely with them in managing the corrective permit process but, most importantly, shifting the local environmental authority perception about Harsco from negative to positive. The corrective environmental permit was finally issued in May 2017, but the legal team’s leadership in securing the TAC enabled Harsco to abbreviate the shut down time of the operations from 10 months to only two months’. At present, the team is involved in implementing the innovative ‘Program of Conflict Prevention and Resolution’, an internal process to resolve employment relationship conflicts of all types prior to them becoming legal claims. According to Mason, ‘this program is not limited to the legal area but has a holistic approach, viewing the company as an organism, and involves all areas. The system sets forth clear rules on how to treat the conflicts, clear communication channels and tools, definition of roles and authority of each participant, circumstances when a matter should be escalated to superior instances and to whom. It also includes training for all facilitators and the employees on a general basis, so that everyone knows how to use it’. Besides Mason, a highly experienced leader, the team also features outstanding professionals Renata Valente and Renata Rezende, who have contributed immensely to the team’s success and reputation.