What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Currently, we are doing a lot of transactions, having approximately 4000 customers in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. So, those regions have been particularly relevant to our business in recent times, and because of the nature of our business we are currently handling a lot of contracts closing every quarter.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

I like to think that we managed the pandemic very well, considering all the challenges every company faced during that time. On work progress, from a virtual perspective, I don’t think there was any work unfinished because of the pandemic. On the economic side, travel restrictions were a challenge, since our team is so much spread out in the region, we missed a lot of interpersonal interactions. Evidently, that led to other issues that we are still trying to handle, in one way by promoting lots of meetings. So, I would say that we have struggled a little bit on fulfilling our personal interactions, but as far as work progression, I think we came a long way.

Not having to be so much in in the office was a benefit sometimes, so we could take some more personal time. I would say one of the positives things we learned from the pandemic is that hybrid work is ideal in the current situation, and we have a good thing going for us, where we are starting to get that level of interaction, through hybrid work, that we previously got with in-office work.

What skills do you think the corporate legal department inside a company needs to be successful?

One thing me and my legal team really appreciate is someone’s innovative way of thinking, connected to their creative efficiency. Additionally, understanding the business of the company, and not limit their work to the legal procedures of the company is important. The way in which we deal people, whether they are internal clients or business partners is essential for the process in which we conduct our business, along with understanding what people need, as opposed to what you can provide.

It is about trying to find efficiency, through innovation of processes, bringing new tools and technology and being able to integrate these the best way possible. Nowadays we generally blame bureaucracy for the time it takes to get things done, so finding ways to be more efficient is key, and having people with that particular mindset working in my department is very important to me. Lastly, developing soft skills, understanding how to navigate and talk business, and create that level of trust where people will bring you as a business advisor to provide legal support, as opposed to advising on legal issues, is also very important.