Team Size: Six

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

One of the most challenging endeavours executed by our legal team the last year, was associated with the processes that were necessary for Cobiscorp to be acquired by Topaz Group, an international company that is part of one of the biggest Software companies around the world. Being involved in such process, made us all realise that if you handle the legal necessities of a company in a timely, ordered and responsible manner, it is easier to be recognised as an interesting and appetible organisation for international investors. When you are handling a multinational company, keeping it in compliance with the national regulations and having its international necessities covered, is not an easy task, but if you do It the right way, the rewards for the organisation are unimaginable.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

Multinational companies do not have a choice, working with external attorneys is not optional, it is necessary. The cost of trying have internal legal teams in every jurisdiction they execute their activities, would be huge and hard to maintain in time. What is advisable in this scenario, is for the company to have one well-structured team, that has a real and profound knowledge of the organisation´s needs, covering the basics: international taxation planning, corporate structuring, general compliance and agreements negotiation. Every other topic that is not commonly needed in the company´s daily operation, can and should be canalised through external counselling, unless you were lucky enough to have hired a specialist as part of the team, that can at least cover the following requisites: a) resides in the jurisdiction, b) has a licence to practice in the jurisdiction, c) has enough expertise to cover the needs arising at the moment. Regarding the Firms that currently work with, we can say that we have received a great service, nevertheless, it is always a good option to receive different perspectives and proposals, so we never close our doors to new commers, we appreciate being able to maintain negotiations and conversations with new Firms.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

The software business has always been impacted by new regulations. Since the industry evolves quicker than any other, legislation tries to catch up. Globalisation has helped too, nowadays it is easier to understand what is happening in different countries and governments can exchange information easier that before. Data protection laws have been gradually increasing all over the world, even though they have existed for a long time in USA and Europe, Latin American countries have just started to experience the cohesion of those laws. Therefore, it is important to keep our legal teams updated so that we can prevent our clients from being sanctioned by the government, or worse, being sued by someone who considers their rights were not handled properly.