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

Currently, one of the most significant and important cases we have is an international arbitration against a supplier. The case is highly complex, and it has required us to investigate in depth and learn about the product, its characteristics, the procedures inherent to its manufacture, its guarantee, as well as its mitigation measures.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

Covid-19 accelerated many changes that seemed to evolve more gradually, such as remote working. From the legal market’s perspective, this change has been for the most part really successful, as it was possible to sustain the same quality of services, while saving office costs, travel and time. However, there is no doubt that remote work often led to not having a digital disconnection, thus harming the mental and psychological health of workers. Therefore, Emergency Decree No. 127-2020 specifies the recognition of the right to digital disconnection, understood as the worker’s right to disconnect. Through this regulation, the Peruvian State tries to prevent damage to the worker’s health. The possibility of having a situation similar to that of 2020 is an invitation for every company to think about contingency plans and improvements towards digital transformation, both from an internal and external customer point of view.

What are some of the key developments – legal, geopolitical or otherwise – that have affected your business over the past year?

Covid-19 has unleashed one of the worst crises. Added to this is the uncertainty of the government of President Pedro Castillo and the lack of consensus between the executive and the congress, which makes investors hesitate to bet on Peru. In the real estate sector, these situations have generated the exit of smaller companies from the market and the consolidation of larger companies, the latter monopolising the real estate demand, which increased through the release of funds granted by the Peruvian State. Consequently, the large real estate companies have not suffered major economic impacts in the last year, unlike other areas. For this reason, expectations for growth in the real estate sector are high.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Legal tech mainly means time saving, optimisation of resources, and reduction of conflicts. Even though artificial intelligence threatens to take away from the lawyer tasks that are performed daily; technology will not be able to completely replace the work of a lawyer, especially because the legal world is very interpretative.