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

WeWork Latin America’s regional legal affairs team, that I am fortunate to lead, focuses on providing legal advice and support on:

Real estate and business development deals and obligations in the region.

Regional corporate governance including the management of corporate obligations and the execution of regional corporate policies at a country level.

Commercial negotiations and initiatives involving more than one country or with a regional impact.

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

Internal legal teams can drive change in their organisations and build strong relationships with business partners by making them realise that legal issues are everywhere (from the structure itself, the whole operational chain and day-to-day functioning of the organisations). By showing that the legal team is an ally due to its integral and strategic position of the organisations, it has the knowledge of the company and core business and may have a relevant impact in the discussions and decision-making process when looking for effective and business-oriented solutions and projects.

Having an all-encompassing vision of the business and being able to engage and work closely with internal non-lawyer clients and cross-functional teams, as well as familiarising with their different interests, needs and objectives that evolve over time and geographically, allow in-house lawyers to evaluate legal risks and courses of action from a commercial perspective, considering short- and long-term goals. This adds value to the decision-making process, a unique contribution to a solid growth and success of the organisations and their trajectories.

In the global, interconnected, and fast-paced world we live in, there are several tools to develop besides traditional legal knowledge. Keeping up to date not only with the specifics, trends, and regulations of the particular industry, and also gaining knowledge with regards to other intimately related fields of the day-to-day operation, actively participating in events and doing research of the valuable experiences and perspectives of other players in the industry is important.

Putting those essential skills into practice and taking advantage of all the gained knowledge, being resilient, creative from a legal perspective, proactive and thinking out of the box when discussing business-oriented solutions, allow the in-house role to directly collaborate in the achievement of timely and satisfactory decisions for organisations.