Can you please give us an idea of the work your team has done recently?

Over the last two years, it has been challenging for our legal department to manage the pandemic from a legal perspective. We have considered and worked on matters such as planning stoppages from a legal point of view, re-opening our plant, and lobbying until we were considered as an essential industry. We managed to work on these without ignoring reforms to the laws such as the labour and tax reforms and possible energy project.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

All the challenges we encountered seemed to propel innovative technology to help all areas, even in the legal world. It inevitably helped erase the negative associations of technology with law. Initially I was not in favour of using legal technology, but after helping to develop the tool and train users, I admit it has been extremely helpful in managing the workload and the remote situation of our employees. It has been helpful to remember that even when a product or service is automated, it is always because of a human idea.

The technology for drafting documents, filing them, gathering, has been advanced and this impacts the way an in-house lawyer will work. Technology will continue to impact us as it develops and improves areas and the traditional way of doing things.

What qualities would you say are necessary for in-house legal counsel to succeed?

In my experience, the qualities that every in-house lawyer requires to be successful are creativity, flexibility, and patience.

Creativity is needed because every business area in a company has unique needs and different methods are necessary to identify them. The perfect example this year was the labor reform as it affected all business areas. It involved suppliers, there was also a need for new agreements, new tax formations among others. The role of the in-house lawyer is to explain to each area how they will be affected and offer solutions.

Flexibility is important because in-house counsel works as part of a global company that already has policies and processes. There will be opportunities for quick analysis about what you can apply, tropicalize, or even modify from these processes.

Patience is necessary because as lawyers we may speak in our own unique way, which is not easily understandable by people outside of the legal profession. There will be many opportunities to explain several times until there is an understanding by all.