Team size: three

Major legal advisers: Consortium Legal, BLP, BDS, Artavia & Barrantes.

Which recent political, economic, or regulatory changes have impacted the company and the team the most?

Our company is a leading participant in the health industry in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, which is heavily regulated. The major challenge has been keeping up with new ways authorities addressed the sanitary registration of innovative products during the pandemic. Restrictions have hindered our ability to provide new and complementary testing treatments in the legal and compliance functions and regulatory affairs, which I also oversee. Additionally, we also faced difficulties intricately linked with Covid-19, such as operational limitations, implementation of mandatory vaccination for employees, and the development of an in-house epidemiology intelligence team.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

The role of the internal counsel is evolving to adopt engineering capabilities. For instance, tools such as workflow mapping that enhance and allow the incorporation of contract process automatisation and IT knowledge of the functionality of applications require lawyers to develop expertise in the technological field, which is not in the nature of their role. The main goal is to render simple transactional processes more efficient and inclusive to all company stakeholders. I am sure that other operational processes will quickly go through the same process.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected the company and the team’s priorities?

We took part in the public ecological Blue Banner programme in 2016 – it reviews and audits all our sustainability initiatives and KPIs. We have consistently obtained positive outcomes, and our sustainability initiatives have always been awarded ever since. Our last award even included the double star recognition—an additional booster for our team’s motivation to do even better going forward.