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

The number one challenge over the past year was about risk mitigation. It can be quite wide, and it is indeed. There are several aspects on that, such as how legal is on the spot, how legal communicate to all levels in the organisation, how legal is knowledgeable about the business and how legal is involved in the management discussion and decisions. For sure this is a general definition and strategy for the legal department over the years and the main topic addressed last year, was communication – effective communication and new training content and methodology.

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

Legal departments need to understand how the business works. It is not only about general knowledge. It is about talking the same language and cross the border of the department. Also, effective communication is very important. Finally, legal cannot be close only to management – it needs to be close to the entire organization, at all levels, in order to understand causes and assess and take actions to mitigate risks, from the beginning.

What are some of the most significant cases and transactions you have been involved in recently?

There are two projects developed last year that I would like to highlight, and they are related to ESG, a topic on the spot. G, which stands for governance, is a new way and scoring on how to assess risk on contracts. On E, environment, was a very interesting and innovative project of reconstruction of the marine environment.