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

Recently, the risk, legal and data management department of Securitas Portugal was involved in the process of acquiring Stanley Security’s electronic security business in Portugal. The aforementioned acquisition process was a global acquisition process, which began with the acquisition of businesses in Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore and India.

The acquired entities provided an integrated electronic security offer – from design to installation and from maintenance to alarm monitoring – based on a complete portfolio of advanced security solutions, such as access control, intrusion, video, fire and integrated systems.

The risk, legal and data management department monitored the acquisition process from the contract negotiation stage, through to carrying out all actions in order to comply with the applicable legislation, with special emphasis on the legal regime applicable to the security sector private sector, until the conclusion of a merger project by incorporation of the company acquired in Securitas Portugal.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

Business ethics are at the heart of Securitas’ culture and it has a compliance program on which Securitas has invested heavily. Securitas’ compliance program establishes a set of measures and procedures based on its code of values ​​and ethics, with a view to ensuring compliance with the law and internal rules, contributing to the development of its activity.

At Securitas we are committed to maintaining responsible business wherever we operate and we must ensure the same level of commitment from our partners, therefore it is essential to work with external lawyers who are aligned with our values. We have therefore implemented a code of conduct for business partners that was created to give our business partners a clear perspective of the values ​​and principles that underlie all of Securitas’ work.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Technological evolution and artificial intelligence, represent and will certainly represent an opportunity for the simple and repetitive tasks carried out by legal teams to give way to tasks of greater responsibility and that require high intellectual skills, critical thinking and capacity relationship, thus allowing legal teams to become more efficient.

If, on the one hand, technological evolution brings simplification, less bureaucracy and access to a large amount of information, on the other hand, it forces the adoption and implementation of reinforced security measures that go far beyond the physical security of installations.

The gain from using these tools, which allow us to provide faster and more efficient responses, will only be fully achieved if there is a large investment in mechanisms that protect confidential information and cybersecurity tools.