Team size: Three

Major legal advisers: BLP, Consortium, Espino Nieto, Palacios and Asociados, LATAMLEX, Arias, Fabrega y Fabrega

What are the most significant cases or transactions you and your team have been involved in?

I cannot provide a specific name purely for confidentiality reasons. However, we were able to win a collection of cases of appeal for several million dollars from a financial institution in Guatemala. Our most ambitious achievement was implementing a vaccination initiative in partnership with a public institution in Guatemala, which allowed us to fully vaccinate all our employees in the country.

 What do you think are the biggest risks facing your industry now and how are you preparing your team and organization to deal with them?

The most considerable risk to our industry continues to be the uncertainty that the pandemic carries with itself. The overall situation causes stress, competitive pressure, and brand protection issues. All the above gave rise to several legal and commercial risks to our industry. However, Colgate-Palmolive has a robust plan and a clear strategy. We are very prepared through focus, empowerment, experimentation, and a digital experience; we will strive for excellence and show the utmost resilience. We have learnt a lot over these two years, and it has prepared us to face all those risks.

Even in the best-case scenario, COVID is likely to have far-reaching ramifications. How are you safeguarding the long-term health of the business?

As previously mentioned, during the pandemic, we were able to learn and prepare a response to a variety of matters. The most important one has been taking care of our people, our customers, and our suppliers — to care for them, build long-lasting relationships, and help each other in challenging times. The key concept to safeguarding the long-term health of the business is sustainability. The in-house legal team has performed many assessments and taken many pre-emptive measures in order to ensure the long-term growth of the company. Finally, concerning a risk perspective, we are cautious only to take those risks that we can manage and that are safe to try.