Team size: 15
 

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

The adoption of a simple everyday philosophy: make everything digital. This is how we have made documents and information easily accessible to everyone in our team. In recent years, we have created shared repositories of contracts, letters, models of board resolutions, in English, which every team member can freely consult and take inspiration from. This is a good example to start with, and you just have to adjust the templates according to the legal environment of your area. We wanted to eliminate the old practice of reinventing the wheel every time. It worked; mission accomplished!
 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years? 

I believe the biggest challenge will be to manage the implications of an unprecedented set of uncertainties, which are growing in number and impact over time. The overall scenario has begun to change at a pace and with developments of such magnitude that we have not experienced before; the situation is likely to become even more complex as we move forward. The general counsel’s task, more than ever before, will be to ensure that uncertainties arising from environmental, technological, economic, geopolitical, or regulatory factors, on their own and in interaction with each other, do not automatically translate into legal uncertainties, spiralling out of control. To manage these developments successfully, it is necessary to keep abreast of them as they arise and then to act accordingly, with the support of the company. Therefore, I expect the role of the general counsel to continue to grow into an even more strategic position. Already, general counsel is so close to how the final decisions are made, that you feel like you are the one making them. After weighing up all the alternatives, often the final adviser could be considered the final risk taker. I expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.
 

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company? 

Sustainability is a new dimension in the way we operate at Cementir. There is no other way to put it. It is no longer possible to address any significant issue without considering its ramifications in terms of sustainability. It is now an all-encompassing conversation, encompassing the composition of boards of directors, starting with that of the listed parent company, the structure of our governance, our personal and group goals and policies, human resources practices in recruitment processes, and so on. The general counsel makes sure that everything is managed in a consistent and legally acceptable manner. At the end of the day, it is business as usual, but in a new form.