Legal director | SOMA
Paola Patricia Valencia Hidalgo
Legal director | SOMA
Team size: 10
Main legal advisers: Galicia Abogados, Creel Garcia-Cuéllar Aiza, Greenberg Taurig, S.C.
Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved the way your legal team worked and did not involve a large expense?
Implementation of shared network and accessibility from any location. The infrastructure already existed in the company; they just designed the network and implemented the security access, which gives immediate access, and the response time significantly improved. We also worked at implementing formats for commercial work, services or any similar contract/agreement requirements. The performance of the procedure and its requirement to be implemented in other areas to our area policies have meant an improvement in response times.
Can you foresee any key changes in the way legal counsel work in the next five years?
What we have learned in recent years has taught us that although technological advances and tools support us and facilitate the execution of advisory services, the most valuable and central part will be the basic principles of service, which should stay the same over time.
A professional service, committed to the company or group to which it belongs, but also in its social environment, where the daily exercise means complete growth. This requires a commitment from the trainee, manager, assistant directors, directors, advisors, counterparts, and authorities and entails an ethical exercise of the legal service.
Indeed, the in-house counsel is not only a reviewer of negotiations or documents but a key piece of the excellent professional, labour, and commercial, among others, ensuring the sound exercise of legal and social compliance.
What are some of the main trends affecting the industrial sector in which you work in Mexico?
The creation of vehicles that provide efficiency and certainty to investment in the real estate sector, such as Fibras and Cerpis. Analysing the business model, its assembly, implementation, and approval to operate under the rules and guidelines of such vehicles allows for better means of investment for third parties and the possibility of projecting better developments and projects. These vehicles are full of regulations and norms, which oblige the operators/managers to adhere to them transparently to the investors. An investment and sustainability design improvement is sought with ESG and other conditions surrounding such investment.
What steps has your company taken to integrate sustainability practices into its core business operations and how does the role of legal counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices in the company?
Creating policies, procedures, and guidelines allows each member to know how to act in the search for and achieve sustainable practices in the company. Policies are elaborated and approved, and implementation, follow-up and interaction campaigns are carried out through different areas.
Through my work as a legal advisor, I support the creation, revision, policy structure, and committee participation. I also endorse the team in my area to participate in various committees actively, support the advice and interaction with other departments to implement sustainable practices in the company.
How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?
In the team, there is no distinction of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic capacity or any other, which may result in a disparity outside their professional capacity and skills. I usually refer to the team, that each one, from their knowledge and acquired experience, teaches the others, and each opinion is equally valuable, so the team complements each other, working together.
The participation of the legal team is encouraged in Committees or subcommittees of the group, such as the Inclusion and Diversity Committee, Integration Subcommittee, Mental Health Committee, and Physical Activity Committee, among others. The above promotes integration and inclusion.
Legal director | SOMA