Focus on being the manager of CBC Peruana

I am the Legal manager of CBC Peruana, PepsiCo’s exclusive bottler for Peru. CBC also manufactures and distributes other mass consumption products and its own brands.

I have worked as an in-house lawyer for the company since its establishment in Peru in 2015, supporting the operational and commercial areas to achieve its goal with no contingencies and regulatory sanctions in Indecopi.

Indecopi is the entity in charge of regulating competition, antitrust, consumers and brands in Peru. This company is part of The Central America Bottling Corporation, the first Latin American bottler to issue sustainable bonds for $1.1 m in the international market.

Being part of this successful transaction is one of the prominent cases I have been involved in recently. My team and I also won an arbitral procedure and closed several deals with strategic partners.

The pandemic has challenged us to change in peremptory terms, but it has also changed the way we work, having to face changes in very short timeframes, continuously rearranging things.

The regulations imposed by the state forced us to process authorisations with delays, but at the same time, we did not have to stop our operations. We are a first-need company, due to the production of water.

That permeability to change has shown that only those who have that predisposition not to enclose themselves in their shells are the ones that succeed. Being and essential industry, we could not stop despite the health crisis. The rising prices of raw materials, fuel and the cost of fertilisers, water and energy have called into question the entire stability of the company.

The challenge of in-house lawyers is promptness in identifying the most significant problems, being proactive and find a solution to solve them. The technological advancements that I feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future are that connectivity and having paperless documents.

This allows lawyers to work anywhere without being physically present in the office. However, with technological advancements, there are also new risks — hackers are stealing information and asking for money in return.

Metaverse can also change the way in which hearings are held since now you can have hearings virtually. I am sure that we will be replaced by avatars which will move and be directed by us and allow us to have proximity to the other person even if you are not there.

However, we should always remember that we are not robots and that technology can never replace physical contact between humans.