Team size: Four

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

I have found the best way is to be in constant contact with general management and members of the board of directors, to have a firsthand appreciation of the business and what plans they have, in order to provide timely legal advice and mitigate potential legal risks. I also believe that it is very important to have open channels of communication with the risk department in order to analyse the risks together and take timely and reactive actions.

Can you discuss a particularly challenging dispute or M&A scenario you encountered and the innovative strategies you implemented to address it?

Considering the current business model of ICBC Peru Bank, which only serves companies in the corporate segment, we have the opportunity to analyse and advise on transnational operations that give the opportunity to manage, coordinate and lead operations with lawyers from all over the world, taking into account that ICBC is in all continents. These transactions are coordinated with our advisors, and we lead the negotiations with the advisors of the other parties at an international level.

One of the great challenges is always to understand the analysis and emphasis of the legal and non-legal risks that each party wishes to defend, and the cultural issues involved in international negotiations. Reaching a win-win agreement in the best possible time frame is always a challenge. Also, in this type of negotiations there is always room to learn from legal, non-legal and even cultural issues that serve further negotiations.