First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently?

My team provides full legal support for Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s businesses in Mexico and the rest of Latin America excluding Brazil. In recent years, our work has included supporting client companies as they access local and foreign debt capital markets and bond issuances to take advantage of the current market conditions as well as managing risk through hedging trades. Other key areas include continuity as we transition away from the LIBOR benchmark, the adoption of e-signatures and new equity regulatory projects.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

Legal departments have become more dependent upon communication technologies than ever before. The pandemic forced a natural process that otherwise would not have developed as rapidly otherwise. The pandemic required us to be agile and to implement immediate communication changes in order to be as effective as we had been in pre-pandemic times. In the end, our experience has been successful–we remain connected and business-supportive, and are well-resourced to keep up with the challenge.

In my team we developed strict business routines, including one-on-one meetings that allowed us to move forward and foster connectivity rather than cancel or delay activities, measures which were sorely needed to replace former face-to-face casual chats. Now, virtual management and committee sessions arrived and are here to stay. We have treasured face-to-face communication more than ever, but at the same time realised that a lot of the legal work can also be done easily with the right tech support, so corporate legal work has become virtually all remote. As for transactional legal work, traditional means such as wet ink signatures have been replaced, when required, by digital and e- signatures without sacrificing the same level of certainty and legal comfort. On the other hand, as often happens in financial markets, new regulations and congress laws need to recognise and adapt to the new conditions. Finally, we have seen a lot pf progress at federal level courts aimed at enhancing more efficient technology.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

If I could name one quality above all, it would be independence. We are the heart and soul of the firm’s ethics, and people look at us as the leading example of what is the right way to behave, which requires independent thinking.

Independence needs to come with good judgment and the ability to separate business decisions from legal decisions and to assess risk and reward. Good judgment is the result of experience and intellectual curiosity, without compromising integrity, reputation, and transparency in the process.

But personal qualities are as important as other factors. I call this the “three-legged table”: the ability to create a reliable legal team, when combined with the right management, and the right outside counsel for the right deal, creates the perfect environment.