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‘Achieving the balance between being a business partner and, concurrently, remaining firm in one’s legal positions is an art and requires great assertiveness and the expertise to reach alternative solutions that aid the business to obtain its objectives’, notes Costa Rican lawyer Victor Murillo, Walmart’s regional lawyer for Central America. Responsible for the company’s new business division (with activities in sectors as diverse as pharmacies, financial services, insurance and petrol stations), his role also includes corporate treasury matters, tax, logistics, corporate governance and foreign trade. Since his arrival in 2010, he has introduced Walmart’s systems and trade marks across five jurisdictions as well as undertaking a “rightsizing” of the complex corporate structures of the company’s Central American holdings. Using external counsel frequently, he is appreciative of the ‘great expertise and deep knowledge’ available in the region’s private practice firms, but nevertheless notes that obtaining high-quality service provision of an even standard throughout Central America ‘remains a challenge, as does the full integration of its regional law firms’. A former president of the Costa Rican International Law Association (ACODI, 2001-2002), he is currently vice president of the China-Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce.