Team size: Six

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

As a leading bank in the food and agriculture business, Rabobank has been a key strategic partner to the largest and most important players in the Chilean and Peruvian industries, helping them boost their businesses in terms of international presence, market share and sustainability agenda. From a legal perspective, the team has been critical to support Rabobank’s business areas and clients to find solutions that mitigate specific risks inherent to their relevant industries in times that have shown to be difficult to do businesses, thus facilitating closings in expedite and sophisticated manners. During the last year the legal team has been able to assist the business that secured leading roles in the acquisition finance through which Cencosud acquired The Fresh Market, Agroberries – a leading blueberries producer in the world – in the acquisition of part of Berry World, a UK based company, Viña Concha y Toro in the financing of its US operations through VCT USA; the financing of Pesquera Austral S.A.A., the largest fisheries’ company in Peru, the sustainability linked syndicated loan of Beta, Danper and Trusal, among others.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?

Lawyers are formed to give advice to others. This mindset requires lawyers to think in all possible outcomes of the decisions being taken, as well as of those not being taken. Likewise, during day-to-day tasks, in-house lawyers are required to work both at front and back office, which allows us to have a broad understanding of what the company does and how it is being done. This formation and business knowledge is a scarce (and therefore valuable) asset that has shown to be of critical importance within organisations. In-house lawyers that position themselves as trusted advisors of management teams and that understand the core business in which they are embedded usually play key roles among their peers in leading and coordinating changes in their organisations due to their ability to foresee and understand the need for change and to structure ways of working and because of their capacity to act as mediators among the conflicting interests that may arise during transformation processes.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Delivery, flexibility, reliability and capacity to take decisions having incomplete information are the key skills a corporate legal team must have to succeed in modern in-house industry. The foregoing skills, if combined with deep knowledge of the business and clients and a collaborative spirit with stakeholders are a guarantee of success. It is also crucial to never forget that clients are the reason why companies exist and that our role is to find the best possible solutions to serve them.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

It all starts with trustworthiness and reliability. If a business partner does not trust in the in-house lawyers or cannot rely on their work and delivery, then the relationship is condemned to failure. By being close to business partners, understanding them, their businesses and becoming facilitators for them to achieve their goals, in-house lawyers can build solid and long-lasting relationships. The strategy of the in-house legal team is therefore the exact same as that of the business team, that is, to comply with the promise given to clients. If in-house legal teams are able to position themselves as such before the business partners all the rest will flow naturally.