About

Uber’s legal team in the Andean region (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia) is led by Sandra Monroy. Monroy joined the company in October 2018 as legal director of the Andean region after a formidable career in many of Colombia’s largest companies, as well as service on the takeover commission for the telecommunications industry under President Ivan Duque’s government. Since her arrival, she has influenced positive change in Uber’s legal strategies. The legal team in this region is supported by five lawyers including Monroy, three who are based in Bogota and two who are based in Lima, Peru. The team includes Natalia Caroprese who is senior litigation counsel (Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia), Jaime Escobar who is commercial counsel (Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia), and Laura Farias, legal intern for the Andean region, all exceptional and highly recognised lawyers. The team also works with the support of an executive assistant and external counsel. The team based in Colombia is divided into lawyers responsible for litigation, regulatory and commercial matters respectively. In July 2018, the legal team went through a reorganisation process that was focused on improving efficiencies in legal services provided to the business. As a result, commercial counsel became the single point of contact with the legal department for all internal clients. Having a single point of contact fostered teamwork as now counsel with different areas of expertise work together in order to solve complex legal problems and provide integral legal assessments in a very efficient manner. Monroy highlights that, ‘in the past two years the legal team has been focused on providing training and being a partner to the business, efficiently managing the budget expenses for legal fees; and fostering diversity by empowering female lawyers’. Highlights of the team’s successes in 2018 and 2019 include the obtaining of a regulation in La Paz, Bolivia to expand Uber’s offering in the city, as well as launching Uber in Ecuador. The team led the negotiation of major sampling deals in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru such as a deal with Repsol Peru to provide discounts for drivers registered with the app, the negotiation with Visa for the FIFA World Cup promotional agreement that covered five countries in Latin America, and a sampling agreement with Pepsi in Ecuador for drivers to receive products to share them with riders. All the above give Uber a range of marketing benefits and local recognition. It also developed a tool to automate the drafting process for the terms and conditions of promo codes. The use of this tool provided more autonomy to internal clients and also generated savings to the legal team both in terms of time and resources. The team is commended for also always looking for alternatives to standardise legal requirements, templates, and processes to make them easier and more efficient for internal clients. Monroy highlights that ‘lawyers from the team actively participated in pro bono activities of Women of Uber, one of the employee resources group of Uber. This group is focused on fostering diversity and empower women within Uber’.