Senior legal counsel and compliance specialist | Vanguard
Juan Jose Margain Treviño
Senior legal counsel and compliance specialist | Vanguard
Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?
What has worked for me has been adopting these three fundamental aptitudes: (i) learn and study something every day: if it is something that is not related to your day-to-day legal business, better, even if it is for only 5 minutes; (ii) listen to the ones above and the ones below, to the ones on the side and the ones on different areas; everyone has something to say, and they deserve to be heard; (iii) try to know every coworker by their names, be interested in something particular to their personal lives — hobbies, food, pets, family — it will make a personal connection harder to break and in it builds trust.
In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?
Confidence and trust — you must let people make mistakes and learn from them. Let people have control and teach them to have ownership. A respectful team and good communication are essential. Admire the people above you and be open to learning from them and improving yourself. Recognition is vital; let people know when they are doing an outstanding job.
What is the biggest risk to your industry, and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?
As a financial entity, the most important thing you must be aware of is your reputation — customers build big and trustful companies.
From a legal standpoint, I think the key is in the details, acknowledging that everything is essential, and every agreement, no matter how relevant, always put the same attention and effort. If you do that, you will be minimising any risk.