What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

2022 represented a big challenge for all companies in the world, trying to achieve ‘normality’ after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After a prolonged time, in many industries, conditions were presented to achieve pre-pandemic metrics, specifically for the legal departments. This meant reviewing and creating brand-new processes and procedures within and outside the company.

The biggest challenge was finding the correct balance between virtual and face-to-face work and identify which processes will be re-established and which ones will be different; taking into consideration the advantages that the pandemic brought.

In many countries in which we operate, there was a considerable delay in the response time of the public administration on which we depend on. Lawyers had to put extra efforts to quickly seek for solutions and look for other alternatives to face the situations.

All contract clauses were reviewed and modified (approximately 3,287 documents) so that they reflect the new business conditions from the last two years.

In which ways have you attempted to bring the legal department closer to your business colleagues?

The development of a culture and way of working integrated with other areas and departments of the company is encouraged. Procedures and documents that we provide are done as a teamwork with other departments such as human resources, sales, finance and operations. We are consulted from the beginning of the decision-making process when it concerns new requirements or approaches, and actively participate in finding different options and solutions; we perform preventive and anticipate work, producing legal documents that best suits the requirements of the different areas, seeking to protect the interests of the company.

This culture requires investing time in constant communication with other areas of the company. Lawyers have been promoted to becoming part of the different committees within the company, attending periodical meetings, and actively participating not only in legal decisions, but also in business and operations, forming a more integral and comprehensive legal department with a business vision, that offers better solutions to the problems of the company.