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

In recent years, we have been active in the mergers and acquisitions extent, including the acquisition of Cable Onda, Panama’s largest cable and broadband provider, and the acquisition of Telefonica’s businesses in Nicaragua and Panama, each of which was approximately a US$1bn transaction. We also purchased the interest of our joint venture partner in Tigo Guatemala for US$2.2bn. Moreover, we recently finished divesting our businesses in Africa, to focus fully on our endeavours in the Latin America region. We also recently completed an equity offering which took the form of a rights offering to our shareholders.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use? Examples could be greater flexibility in billing, a more expansive suite of services offered, more transparency in reporting ESG statistics etc.

I would like to see an increased use of alternative billing arrangements, and less reliance on the billable hour.

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

Corporate legal teams need to focus on developing non-legal skills among their attorneys. In order to best perform our roles, we need to understand and fully participate in our company’s business, which requires commercial acumen, as well as communication and presentation skills. When it comes to professional development, the focus is often solely on technical skills and subject matter expertise, which are important but not any more important than being able to function as an effective executive.