Team size: Five
Country: Panama

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved the way your legal team works and did not come at a great cost?

Considering that one of the main struggles faced by every corporate legal department is achieving full efficiency with fewer resources while managing numerous complexities, we have introduced standardised templates (developed internally) for various types of agreements. These templates are designed to be applicable across as much of the Latam region as possible. Fresenius Medical Care’s CRM already includes certain templates, and we are in the process of expanding this tool to include more. However, the demands of the business necessitate a daily solution within a few minutes, ensuring that it addresses the needs and complies with local laws and regulations.

These standardised and improved templates will be utilised in the extension of our CRM, along with a standardised format for drafting contracts. This approach allows legal to efficiently capture the necessary information for contracts without having to look through hundreds of emails, thereby reducing our overall workload and enhancing efficiency.

What are some of the key developments that have affected your business over the past year?

Certain countries and jurisdictions have issued many regulations, rules and laws relating to the medical device industry as well as pharmaceuticals, imposing new obligations from a quality, regulatory and compliance standpoint on manufacturers as well as intermediaries employed to conduct business in those countries. This is super-critical because it forces industries to constantly monitor developments in order to comply with local requirements and avoid product shortages affecting the end-user.

How do you think the internal legal role will evolve in the coming years?

I believe the in-house legal role will evolve into a more strategic business partner that will increasingly contact and engage with the business landscape as a proactive key player rather than a reactive one, a facilitator of business rather than a blocker and more in touch with the body regulators. The role will become more tech-savvy to improve efficiency and speed and to ensure and streamline the process that will facilitate the risk management role that the in-house legal function has successfully developed over the years.

In addition to that, it will be more important for the legal department to continue its integration efforts with other support functions such as IT, Finance, Compliance and HR to ensure collaboration, effective communication, and teamwork to resolve legal issues or company matters, in an effective risk mitigating manner.

Do you use any ‘legal tech’ products, and if so, what areas of your work do you find it most useful for?

Yes, the legal team uses two types of legal products for Latin America; however, my goal is to unify this into one product. Both products are super useful for contract drafting, tracking business requests, dates of modifications, and approvals, ensuring accountability of all departments involved in this process, which is not unique to Legal.