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

I worked several years in commercial litigation, later in the federal public sector and in law firms specialised in corporate matters with a primary focus on business development, which influenced my decision to move as in-house counsel. What inspired me to make this change was curiosity; l wanted to know how my legal recommendations impacted a business after the client executed or not those recommendations and to measure the impact on business decision making.  

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

I mainly supervise regulatory compliance being the main focus mitigating risks to avoid business interruption in our manufacturing sites; EHS are my day-to-day responsibilities within the Legal team. I also manage the corporate compliance of all Mexican Celanese’s companies and our Latam branches in Argentina and Brazil.  

I also participate in special projects that will impact the organisation such as site shutdowns, remediation processes, M&A, as well as when there is a change of law or regulation to which Celanese must comply, I jump in for interpretation & implementation purposes  

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

Getting used to being out of my comfort zone. I came well prepared from working at excellent law firms but the environment you experience as in-house counsel is completely different.  For instance, not everyone you’ll be interacting with is a lawyer and must of them assume you can do a lot more because you’re a trained lawyer. I needed to overcome my risk fears and to step aside this attitude of “having always the right answer based in law”.  Of course, having a good knowledge of the law is enormously helpful but the in-house role demands a pro-business mindset and decision-maker taking into consideration the needs of the organisation. 

Another challenge I face in the region is the lack of openness to enhance the professional growth of women mothers.  It is still perceived as a difficulty to perform our responsibilities just for being women and mothers; the invitation for people who read me is to broaden their criteria, to make decisions based on results (disregarding any sex-typical and gender identity bias).  The way I’ve coped is giving measurable results to counter stereotypical bias as a woman and mother.  

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

I’m always asking to better understand what the business requires from me, especially because of the numerous central functions located abroad. What has given me tremendous results is to step up and take responsibility quickly, even before I’m told to assess the risk and come with different possible solutions or problem-solve step plan.