About

Tech giant IBM has a small but powerful in-house legal team at its operation in Colombia, with a reputation for expertise across a wide range of topics. Juan Pablo Ovalle Arana, country counsel, leads the team of three lawyers. As a lean department all of its members have to deal with a wide range of situations and subject matters on a daily basis and Ovalle highlights that, ‘this has allowed us to gather experience in multi-disciplinary areas and be able to step in when somebody is absent’. Assisting Ovalle is a senior contract and negotiations specialist and an intern with other legal support being coordinated by the team with external counsel. Recently, the team was forced to make a staff reduction, and at the same time continue to deliver with the speed the business required. Ovalle highlights that this ‘forced us to increase our level of skill, assume a bigger workload and keep the office running’. Recently the team has worked on artificial intelligence deals such as an interactive experience platform with Fondo Nacional del Ahorro, as well as a cognitive analytics technologies system deal with the Fiscalia General de la Nacion used to fight against organised crime. Ovalle describes the team as ‘a high skilled, high performance team, but basically [also] a team of friends, we support each other, look after each other and try to keep coordinated positions when dealing with internal and external clients. That has gathered the trust and recognition of our internal clients, our peers in the region, where other countries happen to have a larger legal department and the respect of the management team’.