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

The team has been engaged on many fronts, helping the business to navigate these turmoiled times. From a macro perspective, we have faced many difficulties, such as the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, material shortages, inflation, and significant changes in regulations in Latin American economies, among others. All those challenges require much from the legal department, from being agile and adapting to changes, to be creative, collaborative, disciplined and priority focused. The legal department was at the front line with the business, finding ingenious solutions, negotiating and collecting, supporting our company and helping our customers to find solutions to emerging issues.

From the business standpoint, Johnson Controls’ transformation journey into the leading player in the smart and green buildings space, impacted our legal organization, from the mindset to the skillset of the team members, moving away from manufacturing and construction, into digital space and sustainability. Successfully managing this transition was one of the main challenges for me and my organization.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Technological advances already play a key role in-house legal teams’ transformation, as they are doing for almost every single profession or occupation. As of today, I´m particularly interested in automation, machine learning tools and AI, because they can simplify tasks, provide instant visibility, improve risk assessment quality, allowing in-house counsel to make informed, faster and better decisions for the business. It’s not a secret that better processes and knowledge are distinctive competitive advantages in any field. AI has the potential to be one of the most impactful, and disruptive in the legal field, certainly not free of controversy.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

In-house counsels need to keep developing strong business skills, understanding of the business dynamic, the ability to communicate complex issues in simple terms, change management, risk tolerance and technology background. As we see organizations moving into process standardization at global level, intercultural skills become a differentiator. Despite the increasing importance of technologies, people skills will still be among the most important skills of a successful in-house counsel.