Brazil Teams 2019
| TIM
TIM
Regional head of legal | Vale
Head of legal SCIB - Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Nordic Countries | Banco Santander
Corporate officer, group chief legal officer and group compliance officer | SoftBank Group
Head of Legal and Company Secretary | DIB Bank Kenya
Vice president – legal and compliance | Country Group Development
Executive director, head, compliance, secretary | Principal Capital
Head of Legal | B.Grimm
Lead legal counsel | Makyol İnşaat Sanayi Turizm ve Ticaret
Country head - managing legal counsel | T. Rowe Price
General counsel South and Southern Africa | Unilever
General counsel, legal and compliance, Latin America and Canada | Boston Scientific
Legal counsel | CIN – Corporação Industrial do Norte
Head of legal Santander Corporate & Investment Banking Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Nordic countries | Banco Santander
General counsel and company secretary | Legal & General
Director de asesoria legal | Unión Agroindustrial de Cañeros - Unagro
Chief legal officer, group compliance officer and corporate officer | SoftBank Group Corp.
Vice president, legal | Pasudeco Development Corporation
Chief compliance officer, general counsel & DPO | Critical TechWorks
Vice president – legal and compliance | Boutique Corporation
Executive director, head, compliance, secretary | Principal Capital
Senior vice president, corporate legal development, business development -North Asia plus | B.Grimm
| Semco Maritime
| Hasslache Norica Timber
Assistant general counsel and legal director for Brazil | GSK
General counsel | Mineral Resources
General counsel and company secretary | I-MED Radiology Network
Vice president legal and compliance ANZ | Fujitsu Australia
Head of legal corporate and investment banking Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Nordic countries | Banco Santander
General counsel Europe | GKN Automotive
Senior legal counsel | EBOS Group
Head of legal corporate and investment banking Germany | Banco Santander
Senior director of legal and compliance | Boston Scientific Corporation
General Counsel and Company Secretary | I-Med
Vice president, legal | ShawCor
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020. What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? In...
General counsel and company secretary | Legal & General
General counsel and chief franchise officer | Mastercard
Senior vice president and general counsel | DISH Network
Vice president and general counsel | University of Michigan
Executive vice president and general counsel | Prudential Financial
Chief legal counsel, Greater China | Microsoft
| Times Internet
How is the legal team structured? The legal team consists of the head legal, general manager, chief managers and managers. Legal work across various businesses of the company are allocated...
| Times Innovative Media (A Times Group Company)
Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured? The legal team led by Shardendu Kumar has been structured as a cohesive unit having five in-house lawyers, each handling...
| The Times Of India Group
Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department? The legal team of the vice presidency of legal affairs of...
Director, legal and global operations management | Gedeon Richter
What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? Setting up from scratch the structure of the global compliance system...
Head of legal, corporate and investment banking - Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Banco Santander
Timo Spitzer achieved many significant accolades in 2019, in particular the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Award for Global General Commercial Individual of the Year in New York City and the...
Head of legal Germany | GoDaddy
Tim Montag began his in-house legal career in 2013 by joining European HEG (Host Europe Group) and later became the head of legal department in 2017. Shortly after, Host Europe...
Associate general counsel | Qatar Petroleum
Associate general counsel for state-owned petroleum company Qatar Petroleum, an organisation which is responsible for all phases of the oil and gas industry in the country and which subsequently creates...
Chief officer of business development and legal affairs | Latin America Power
Listed in the inaugural GC Powerlist: Chile in 2017, Michael Timmermann Slater has continued his upward trajectory in Chile’s in-house legal market. Now, as chief officer of business development and...
Executive vice president, general counsel and secretary | Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc
‘The best way to achieve success as an in-house lawyer’, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Bio-Rad Laboratories Timothy S. Ernst believes, ‘is to be seen as a...
Real Estate, Transport and Infrastructure | Land Securities Group
Team size: 5 Major law firms used: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland Land Securities Group (Landsec) GC Tim Ashby has gone from...
Insurance | Legal & General
Team size: 22 Major law firms used: Clifford Chance, Eversheds Sutherland, Pinsent Masons, Slaughter and May ‘He’s an average musician,’ says Legal & General chief executive Nigel Wilson of his...
Partner | Allen & Overy
Based in: London Number of years practice: 25 Principal practice areas: Project development and finance – energy, infrastructure, natural resources Languages spoken: English, French, German What is the geographical focus...
Independent consultant | Cooley
Based in: London Principal practice areas: Commercial litigation, international commercial arbitration, asset recovery Recognised for his outstanding track record in dispute resolution and public international law, Tim Daniel is one...
Board secretary and general counsel | Black & Veatch
Timothy Triplett, President, Legal & Risk Management for Black & Veatch, previously was a name partner at a construction boutique. Since moving in-house in 2008, he has enjoyed inside counsel...
Executive vice-president, chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary | Boston Scientific
For Timothy Pratt, the decision to move in-house following 30 years in private practice was a risky move. He admits now, ‘frankly, I had doubts whether I could do this...
| TANAP Doğalgaz İletim (TANAP)
The legal team at TANAP comprises of seven members, and is led by legal affairs director, Zeynep Gazzali Duran. Other prominent team members include Arif Eren, a legal consultant to...
Legal & Corporate Affairs Director/management Board Member | Rosvodokanal Group of Companies
A ‘qualified executive with substantial and wide in-house legal, corporate and management experience’, Dmitriy Timofeev heads Rosvodokanal Group’s 88-strong legal function. He has led multiple award-winning legal teams and was...
| Modern Times Group (MTG)
‘Today we are considered as business partners as much as lawyers’, describes head of legal Rikke Sonne. The legal department at Modern Times Group (MTG), a Swedish digital entertainment company,...
Area counsel (Middle East & Asia) | Wärtsilä Corporation
Wärtsilä is a global manufacturer and service provider of power sources in the marine and energy markets. Tim Williams was promoted to area counsel for the Middle East and Asia...
| Tototheo Maritime
Legal officer Petros Papaevagorou describes how the Tototheo Maritime legal function is heavily influenced by its governance professionals, highlighting its business-focused approach: ‘The current legal function of the organisation is...
| Seanergy Maritime Holdings
Seanergy Maritime Holdings is a Marshall Islands corporation with its executive offices located in Athens. The company is engaged in the transportation of dry bulk cargoes through the ownership and...
| OSM Maritime Group
Operating in over 30 locations and jurisdictions means that OSM Maritime Group’s legal function is required to keep track of a highly complex workload in support of a truly global...
| Global Maritime Group
Responsible for a full range of ship maritime services for virtually any type of ship afloat, Global Maritime Group has programmes devoted to technical services, hotel operations, crewing, entertainment and...
| A.M. Nomikos Transworld Maritime Agencies
A.M. Nomikos operates a commercial, corporate and ship management service for ship owning entities. The company employs approximately 1,000 staff worldwide on land and sea based operations. The head office...
General counsel | Alibaba, Hong Kong
Tim Steinert became general counsel of multi-billion dollar revenue e-commerce company Alibaba Group in 2007, and has played a key role in the company’s impressive growth since. Indeed, in 2014...
Chief legal officer | Latin American Power (LAP)
‘Michael is a general counsel that you wish to interact with when facing sophisticated issues. He is very easy to work with, even when the workload is intense’, a source...
Vice president, legal | ShawCor
Despite operating globally in more than 70 locations across six continents in more than 25 countries, ShawCor, the world’s largest integrated energy services company, has a very small legal department....
| TIM Brasil - Tax
TIM Brasil is the Brazilian subsidiary of Telecom Italia Mobile, an Italian telecommunications company. As the fastest growing mobile phone company in Brazil with currently more than 13,000 employees, the...
Legal Director Brazil | GlaxoSmithKline
‘I’m contributing, through my work, to make a better world. Each partnership on the vaccines field represents more people protected against some diseases’, says Fatima Picoto legal director for Brazil...
General counsel and general manager corporate affairs | Sealord Group
‘Fishing is a relatively volatile industry which creates business challenges’, says Tim Silverstone. ‘Especially in an environment where the economies in some of our traditional export markets have been struggling....
General counsel | Alibaba
‘Extremely good with exceptional depth’, Tim Steinert is currently leading Alibaba’s US IPO, which ‘could be the largest initial stock offering in US history’. Steinert has served as Alibaba Group’s...
General counsel – Australia and New Zealand and company secretary | Luxottica Retail Australia
Tim Wong joined Luxottica as general counsel in 2013 after accruing prior executive in-house legal experience as group general counsel in the Asia Pacific region for George Weston Foods, and...
| Publicar Publicidad Multimedia
The legal team of Publicar Publicidad Multimedia, parent company of Publicar & Gurú Group, is composed of six lawyers led by Andrés Pérez Velasco, who is the company legal vice...
| Panama Maritime Authority
As the world’s top registry of ships and maritime services, Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has benefited immensely from its highly experienced knowledgeable legal team and relies heavily on its expertise...
Senior director, legal and compliance - Latin America | Boston Scientific Corporation
Fatima Wolff is senior director for legal and compliance across Latin America at Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), where she leads a team of five lawyers covering Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela,...
| Modern Times Group MTG
A leading international digital entertainment company, MTG is a Stockholm-based organisation that has a diverse range of interests in the production, sale and broadcasting of entertainment. In 2019 the company...
Legal and corporate affairs director | Rosvodokanal Group of Companies
Described by peers as a ‘natural born leader’ Dmitry Timofeev is characterised by advanced business acumen, great efficiency and unique expertise that set him among the best professionals in the...
Head of legal global corporate banking Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Banco Santander
With a career rich in experience at some of the world’s most prominent legal and financial institutions, Timo Matthias Spitzer is the current head of legal global corporate banking in...
Head of corporate affairs legal | Heraeus
Dr Timm Ebner joined Heraeus in July 2012, and was made head of corporate affairs legal in January 2013; prior to this he was a senior associate with Hengeler Mueller...
| The Financial Times
In January, The Financial Times (FT) broke the story of the Presidents Club dinner. This went on to dominate the UK news and gain global reach, becoming the most read...
Our tax department is structured in four axes:
Tax planning, consulting and operations: Bruno Justo is the executive manager in charge of a high value creation team with 35 employees responsible for tax planning projects, tax calculations and the fulfilment of tax obligations, providing tax guidance for business units.
Tax litigation: Ronaldo Estevão is the executive leading a staff with four lawyers and six support positions responsible for tax contingency management – circa R$13m, tax audits attendance, and tax regularity certification. In 2018, this team had more than R$1m of success on tax claims.
Tax strategy: Victor Furtado de Mendonça is the tax strategy leader in charge of a multicultural team responsible for tax transformation based on best practices, benchmarking, and financial indicators analysis, and institutional relations with tax authorities and representation in tax-related associations.
Administrative services: Raquel Preis is a very experienced leader, with over 100 support staff positions responsible for management of the administrative operations related to receivables, payments and insurance policies and the establishment, documentation and calculation of commercial policies related to payments of commercial partners.
In the last two years our team played a leading role in relevant projects for the company. These projects were highlighted in our financial statements due to its importance. We are describing below our three main achievements:
A corporate restructure: An operational company was merged with our fixed services unit, granting a huge operational efficiency.
Interest on equity: we were responsible for the implementation of shareholder remuneration through interest on equity. With this action we had very positive results like: (i) share value increase and a tax cash out reduction due to the deductibility of the IoE.
A favourable decision on a relevant Tax Claim regarding the exclusion of ICMS on Social Contributions calculation basis, allowing the company to book a tax credit of R$3m.
An in-house legal team should help the company to develop an outstanding team culture and provide a first-class legal service to clients in the organisation. This can be reached through: (i) understanding our role in the company strategy and how can we contribute to achieve our targets; (ii) in-house legal team must be structured to grant the proper support to core activities and high priority work. (iii) the administrative services and tax department must be value aggregation-oriented, in order to contribute with company’s results.
Not always can the legal team help the company to create value. Most of the time, we are responsible for legal advice aiming to grant legal conformity and to avoid risks. Also, considering that claims in Brazil can take more than 10 years in order to have a final decision our actions now can bring a positive result after many years. We are also investing in management and automation
solutions for legal back office. Our team is currently working on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions applied in classification and analysis of our claims.
Nowadays we are developing an analytics tool which will optimise the way we analyse tax and financial data. We believe that with this tool will provide us with a new range of ways to make our company more efficient and data driven. We are also investing on automatic capture.
Yes, we are committed to promote more diversity and inclusion as a company policy. Recently a woman joined our board of directors for the first time. In our department, among 17 managers, we have seven woman as leaders. Five of them have children and we are very proud to promote a more balanced life.
In 2018 and 2019 we had success on relevant tax claims, regarding the exclusion of ICMS on Social contributions calculation basis, allowing the company to book a tax credit of R$3m. This decision was very relevant for the company results and felt very proud of this contribution to the company.
An In-house legal team should help the company to develop an outstanding team culture and provide a first-class legal service to clients in the organisation. This can be reached through: (i) understanding our role in the company strategy and how can we contribute to achieve our targets; (ii) in-house legal team must be structured to grant the proper support to core activities and high priority work. (iii) the administrative services and tax department must be value aggregation oriented, in order to contribute with company’s results.
