About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department?

The legal team is formed by nine lawyers; one paralegal; two assistants and two interns. Also we have three lawyers in Argentina, Chile and Peru.

What geographical area does the team cover and what challenges has it faced when covering multiple jurisdictions in the region?

The team is responsible for covering the Latin America region. The main topics that we are working on nowadays are about agreements, compliance, labour, tax and corporate. The main issue when covering multiple jurisdictions is regarding the culture and legislation in different countries and understanding the different scenarios of how to make business and assure that the risks and opportunities are tangible.

What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has been involved with in the last two years?

The most important cases were related litigations and disputes in the court and arbitration regarding agreements with suppliers and dealers.

Which areas has the legal team as a whole become responsible for in the last 12 months, or will become responsible for in the near future?

Besides the items mentioned above, since 2018 we have been working with the set-up regarding Protection Personal Data Legislation in Brazil and Europe.

How important have “soft skills” or personal attributes outside of technical legal skill been to the team’s success, and which “soft skills” do you feel are most important for an in-house lawyer to possess?

Currently the in-house lawyer has to be able to understand the other areas such as: finance, marketing, account and HR, working in a cross-functional way in order to be “generalist professional”. Moreover, the lawyer must have the ability to understand the business and also balance the risks that should be taken “versus” the opportunity without forgetting to follow the legislation and mandatory requirements.

How can in-house legal teams be an integral part of their firm’s business? How does the legal team demonstrate its value to the company?

Currently, the in-house lawyers are responsible for taking the decision together with the board of the companies. On top of that, I assume that the involvement of lawyers is very important, since the beginning of the operation and as informed above, lawyers have to be ability to understand the business and also balance the risk that should be taken “versus” the opportunity without forgetting to follow the legislation and mandatory requirement. In this way, the legal team can contribute with the company avoiding risks and working proactivity, in order to close the business.

Does the team use any “legal tech” products and do you find them a helpful management device?

The team is working with legal tech tools and it is helping us with the management of diary activities.

Is diversity and inclusion as a matter of internal policy on the agenda at your company? How much influence do you, as an in-house legal team, have on the diversity and inclusion policies of your organisation?

Yes, it is. Nowadays, we have a diverse team covering different genders, religions, disabilities and others. Also we have a policy and code of conduct approaching this subject.

What political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted the company and the team the most recently?

The new regulation applicable to automobile companies are impacting the company, but in a positive way, in order to establish the new conditions and rules to the sector.

Focus on…

TEAMWORK

“How to develop a high performing team”. The legal area has been changing a lot in recent times, as the legal departments need to administer and manage many demands that haven’t been learned in University. Therefore, there is a need to understand and study other areas that are not considered technical, such as: accounting, finance, marketing and human resources.

Therefore, it is very important to qualify your team, so that it is possible to give due attention to the business areas and understand their environment. Moreover, we believe that developing a high performance team is only possible if we qualify our professionals, in order to have a broad view of all matters that are handled by the department.

On top of that, we have developed a slogan called: “For people, to people”, because only with the involvement of everyone on the team can we achieve excellence in service.

Therefore, we have internally developed a generalist profile strategy of our professionals and allocated the best resource to accomplish the best task. This strategy is called “2x2x2 team”, namely: two professionals, with knowledge of two areas of the company with knowledge of at least two areas of law.

Since we have been started this strategy, it was possible to gain synergy in the team, increase the team’s skills and competences, and also provide a unique experience for our internal customers, providing greater agility and speed in service.

After implementing the strategy, it was possible to certify several gains, adding value to the organisation, such as: 93% success rate in civil actions and 92% in labour lawsuits, better team engagement rate for the entire legal organisation, 99% internal customer satisfaction and recovery of more than six times the department budget.

Finally, we can assure that the achievements are only possible when you have a committed, competent team that knows the paths that must be followed for success, that is, a team that does everything “for people, to people”.