Can you tell us about your journey to becoming an in-house counsel? What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?    

I started my career as a paralegal in a legal studio, I had to provide counseling and services to a several number of clients. I firmly believe the breaking point was when I asked myself the following question .Which of the clients had the priority of my commitment?’

Then is when I realised that what I was really pursuing was a career as an in-house counsel where I could have my total focus and commitment of achieving the goals and objectives of the company, me being part of it and in the process getting the continuity of my personal and professional development in the company.   

In your role as an in-house counsel, what are the main responsibilities and tasks you handle on a day-to-day basis?

I mostly provide legal counseling and advice to all the different areas of the company like Finance, Public Relations and Social Responsibility, IT, Operations, Marketing, Human Resources and Audit. The main objective of the legal advice is about agreements, covenants, syndicated loans with national and foreign investors and markets, creation, and implementation of complex structures of guarantees, intellectual property, corporate matters, and specific projects of the company. Another responsibility is the development and mentoring of the junior in-house counsel that are part of the team.  

What are some of the key challenges you have faced as a rising star in-house counsel, and how have you overcome them? 

It is crucial as an in-house counsel enjoying being a team member – teamwork is the keystone to achieve the company’s objectives in conjunction with the different areas that the in-house lawyer provides the counseling. There would be always difficulties on the road being the most common the different priorities that every member of the different areas may have, the main priority as an in-house lawyer is to reduce the risk for the company and to provide legal certainty of every operation that the company is part of it and for the internal client it shall always be get the project done by any means. To overcome these matters, as an in-house lawyer it is essential to develop the sensibility of the company business model, get the knowledge of best practices and to have the ability to identify which operations are the greater good to the company that is worth to take the risk when you cannot provide the 100% risk free certainty. 

What steps have you taken to enhance your professional development and expand your legal skill set? 

I believe it is crucial to keep the continue development and as an opinion. I am convinced the best way to achieve that it’s between a mixed of academic and sharing best practices with colleagues on symposiums or by regular networking. I can gladly share that my solid steps of personal development are a couple of master’s degrees with focus on Corporate Law and Tax Law and the PhD (Doctorate) on Law. I believe that in-house lawyers besides the legal optic and advice should understand the finance, administration, and commercial part of the business that the company where they provide their services belongs, so taking the consideration of this belief my next goal is to enlist myself on an MBA programme that help me to grow as a legal professional an as a key role player of the company.