Legal manager of hydrocarbons and energy | Grupo Martí
Leidy Lugo Duran
Legal manager of hydrocarbons and energy | Grupo Martí
Team size: 9
What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?
The company recently completed the construction of a photovoltaic solar plant with a capacity of 50 megawatts to inject into the National Interconnected Electric System (SENI).
It was a great challenge for everyone because, until that moment, the main economic activity of the company was the sale of hydrocarbons and vehicles, so we were venturing into a totally different and highly regulated sector.
The legal team was the one that faced the greatest challenge, assuming the commitment to learn and understand everything related to the electricity sector in record time, negotiate the clauses and sign a contract as specialised and technical as the EPC contract, train ourselves and study all the legislation, while establishing the link with the different institutions that intervene in the electricity sector and that now also regulate us.
We had a fast and efficient learning curve, successfully achieving due diligence and procurement of all required permits and authorisations in extraordinary time.
How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
Legal strategies ensure the effectiveness of contingency plans in the face of crises, achieving a better identification and evaluation of risks, and that the company is least affected by them. These strategies also help the company adapt to changes, overcoming moments of crisis in short periods of time, and allow the company to take advantage of crises to redesign and strengthen itself at the institutional level.
Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?
Currently one of the most interesting topics worldwide is AI. I believe that we should all be very aware of the indiscriminate and fraudulent uses of AI, as we are all at risk of falling victim to these, and how little we are protected legally due to the lack of legislation and laws in this regard.
Jurists and legislators should focus on regulating everything concerning the use of AI, especially those aspects related to authorship, responsibility and scope. This should not only be oriented to those people who make use of it, but also to the creators and developers of AI.
What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?
The complexity of the case and the level of knowledge you may have from the team will always be decisive when determining whether the case is handled in-house or external legal services are used.
The performance of external lawyers is always measured by the speed of response they have to a requirement, the effective presentation of alternatives and solutions, timely sending of reports and updates of the process, formalisation of agreements convenient for the company, and naturally by the level of success achieved.
