Team size: Seven

Major legal advisers: CorralRosales (Xavier Rosales, Milton Carrera y Ricardo Mancheno), RIGORI (Mario José Espinosa, Martín Gangotena y Pablo Rosero), Sperber&Alvarez (David Sperber)

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?

One of the main skills of the in-house lawyer is to select external lawyers appropriately, and to do so, not only their technical capacity and experience must be evaluated, but mainly an alignment with the company’s principles and values; DK Corporation does not tolerate practices that are contrary to its principles; alignment with these is a non-negotiable requirement for any company supplier and particularly for external legal advisors due to the importance of their functions. If external advisors do not align with the company’s principles and values, their replacement is reconsidered immediately.

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

The establishment of internal legal departments in the companies and the participation of the legal manager in the different committees and main boards and meetings of the company have given him a deep knowledge of the business that entails relevant positioning in the organisation. Currently, this function is not only restricted to strictly legal matters but has become an advisor and active participant in business decisions.

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

The best way to build solid relationships with the different departments of the company is to deeply understand the business, the company’s objectives and how each team works to achieve them jointly with the rest of the areas. For this, it is essential that a transversal function, such as legal, is part of the company’s executive committee and the different area committees in such a way that there is an interaction not only documentary or through legal advice requirements but also active participation. That allows for generating a powerful relationship with the different areas, thus providing them with the best and most appropriate legal support. Likewise, it is important to create and encourage spaces for constant feedback between the different members of the work teams so that there is continuous improvement, always focusing on meeting the company’s objectives and respecting its principles and values.