What are the key projects you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

I provided in-house legal support for the structuring and successful closing of a debt substitution transaction on behalf of one of Riga’s most significant capital markets clients. The transaction involved replacing existing financing on a run-of-river hydroelectric plant (PCH) with a new credit facility of COP $14bn with Banco BTG Pactual, thereby opening a competitive and sustainable financing alternative for the client. My involvement encompassed legal advisory, coordination, negotiation and the perfection of real guarantees required by the financial institution, liaising with both local and Spanish counsel throughout the process.

How has the role of general counsel evolved, and what are the most important attributes for the modern in-house lawyer?

The role of general counsel has undergone a profound transformation. No longer confined to the traditional function of legal adviser and risk controller, today’s in-house lawyer occupies a genuinely strategic position within the organisation. The modern general counsel does not merely advise on legal risk or ensure regulatory compliance; they actively engage with business strategy, contributing legal insight to the development of the organisation’s long-term objectives and identifying opportunities to simplify and optimise processes that carry material impact on the company’s operations and commercial performance.

In this context, the most important attributes for the contemporary in-house lawyer are, first and foremost, critical and strategic thinking: the capacity to read a business situation through a legal lens while simultaneously understanding its broader commercial implications. Closely related is the ability to exercise high-level leadership and to propose innovative legal solutions that genuinely advance the organisation’s strategic planning, rather than merely responding to problems as they arise. The modern general counsel must be a builder as much as a guardian.

How can in-house counsel use AI to improve efficiency while maintaining quality, governance and integrity within legal teams?

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds genuine and significant potential for in-house legal practice, particularly in two areas: first, as a tool for validating and substantiating legal positions — corroborating arguments through legal, jurisprudential and doctrinal sources with a speed and breadth that would be impractical to replicate manually; and second, as a source of creative input, surfacing novel legal figures, contractual structures and alternative approaches to specific problems, including through comparative law analysis. Both of these applications can meaningfully enhance the quality and innovation of legal work, while delivering tangible efficiencies in terms of time.

That said, responsible use of AI in legal practice requires a disciplined verification step. Given the implications that AI-generated content may carry for corporate governance and institutional integrity, it is essential that in-house counsel subject any AI output to at least a systematic legal review — not to replicate the work already performed by the tool, but to confirm that the solutions, arguments and positions it generates are grounded in and consistent with the applicable legal framework. This minimal but critical layer of human oversight is what preserves the rigour, credibility and accountability that the legal function demands.