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

In May 2018, Valero Perú (formerly Pure Biofuels del Perú) was acquired by Valero Energy Corporation, the world’s largest independent petroleum refiner. After the acquisition, Valero Perú improved the standards of work both in customer services and fuel distribution. As an in-house lawyer representing PBF, my team and I participated in the Due Diligence process for the acquisition.

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

Some examples of the challenges that my team has faced in the past year included: producing high quality of work remotely; adapting to technological tools to manage high workload remotely; establishing internal mechanism and back up action plans to cover any vacant position. What are some of the key developments – legal, geopolitical or otherwise – that have affected your business over the past year? The following issues affected the company’s business over the past year: the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, international fuel prices and political instability in Peru. We supported our business operation function by providing creative ways of risk management. Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? The rapid development of technology allowed in-house lawyers to explore new areas of law and to stay up to date with various legal and regulatory issue. Legal development around start-ups is new in Peru but it is a growing area of practice. In-house lawyers are required to stay up to date with new technologies as well legal implications thusly. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful tool for legal work. However, it will not be able to replace lawyers or judges given that interpretation and application of law requires the ability to understand difference in various situations and context – a task that a computer cannot perform automatically.