About

Formerly head of the litigation department at Barretto Ferreira, Kujawski, Brancher e Gonçalves Advogados, Fabiana Siviero has been legal director at Google Brasil Internet since 2008. ‘It’s exciting to work in house at Google, the company is creating new products and new tools all the time, and laws about the internet are still being created, that’s the situation in Brazil’, she explains, ‘we’re still awaiting a vote on the first “bill of rights” in relation to the internet and in such a scenario, case law assumes a very relevant role’. She regards her own most significant contribution as ‘helping to build this body of case law about the internet in Brazil’. Such is the volume of litigation in this partially unregulated area that internally she has introduced customised tracking records both to manage cases and to provide metrics against which performance can be measured. In such an ill-defined legal sector as internet law, she expects her outside counsel ‘to really partner with the in-house department’, to ‘really understand the legal challenge in front of us and to be smart and creative in generating alternatives and potential solutions to concrete issues’ rather than simply providing ‘“cold” legal advice with a quotation of the law and an indication of the legal risks’. Nevertheless, she regards it as ‘very rewarding to be involved in legal discussions around aspects of a new technology such as the internet when we are still learning about its possibilities’, she notes, ‘especially when I can exchange experiences with the great team of legal experts all around the world who are my colleagues. One is presented with new legal challenges every day’.