Career Biography

María Ximena Guzmán is a Colombian and New York-qualified attorney with over 15 years of experience advising multinational corporations, public institutions and international organisations on high-impact litigation, regulatory strategy, complex commercial matters, employee relations and competition/antitrust issues. She holds an LL.M. in Corporate Law from New York University School of Law, a law degree with a minor in Economics from Universidad de los Andes and an MBA from Imperial College London, where she graduated on the Dean’s List.

Her international education and cross-border practice have shaped a multicultural and multidimensional approach to legal leadership in complex, highly regulated environments. Across industries and roles, María Ximena is known for her strategic thinking, analytical rigour and business-oriented legal judgment. She has built a strong track record aligning legal strategy with operational objectives, managing institutional complexity and translating complex legal issues into clear, practical and implementable solutions.

She currently serves as senior litigation counsel at Uber, where she leads litigation and regulatory strategy across 14 countries in the Central America, Andean and Caribbean region. Her work spans consumer protection, competition/antitrust, constitutional actions, commercial disputes, regulatory enforcement, administrative proceedings, crisis response and product/safety risk counseling for Spanish-speaking Latin America. In this role, she has led multi-jurisdictional litigation and regulatory responses, managed proceedings before national and local authorities, strengthened litigation governance and implemented legal operations improvements focused on outside counsel management, cost discipline, scalable processes and faster execution.

Prior to Uber, María Ximena was the North America contracts supervisor at Schlumberger, where she supervised a regional legal team supporting the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, and led commercial contract negotiations with internal and external stakeholders. Her work contributed to improved legal service delivery, stronger contract governance, and significant process efficiencies.

Earlier in her career, she held strategic advisory and litigation roles at leading Colombian law firms, advising public and private sector clients on infrastructure, public procurement, regulatory compliance, commercial disputes and administrative litigation. She also served at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., where she advised on institutional policy and employee relations across 26 country offices, supporting collective negotiations, cross-border employment matters and regional conflict-resolution frameworks.

María Ximena combines legal depth, international perspective and practical business judgment. She is recognised for clear communication, collaborative leadership and the ability to guide diverse stakeholders through complex legal, regulatory and operational challenges.

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

I have led several strategic legal and operational initiatives focused on protecting and strengthening the company’s operations in Colombia. A key priority was the redesign of our litigation strategy for tutelas and derechos de petición, two highly sensitive mechanisms within the Colombian legal framework. I worked closely with customer support, outside counsel and cross-functional business teams to improve how these claims are processed and addressed, including the development of standardised legal positions, response guidelines and escalation protocols. This resulted in a more consistent and effective defense strategy, with a clean record of favorable rulings, which has been critical in safeguarding operational continuity and reducing legal exposure in a highly complex regulatory environment.

Additionally, I focused on driving efficiency and innovation within the legal function. I led the renegotiation and optimisation of external legal spend across several jurisdictions, achieving significant cost reductions while maintaining strong legal coverage standards. I also proactively managed the outside counsel budget to align with financial and operational targets, while strengthening relationships with external firms and positioning them as strategic business partners rather than purely service providers.

Finally, I am part of the global legal team responsible for implementing AI tools within the legal department. This includes projects focused on leveraging data analytics to identify trends in consumer protection claims, improve preventative legal strategies, and create more efficient internal processes. I believe these initiatives will continue reshaping the way legal teams operate and interact with the business.

What key trends should in-house counsel be monitoring over the coming months?

A key trend in-house counsel should closely monitor is the transformation of the relationship between legal departments and outside counsel driven by AI and data-driven legal operations. While AI is already generating efficiencies, its greatest impact will come from how in-house teams integrate these tools into broader legal and business strategies.

In particular, the traditional external counsel model is evolving from a reactive service-provider relationship into a more strategic partnership. As legal departments increasingly leverage AI, automate workflows and rely on data analytics, external firms will be expected to provide more strategic advisory support, greater transparency and stronger alignment with business objectives. This evolution will also reshape fee structures and commercial arrangements, with increasing focus on alternative fee models, efficiency metrics and long-term value creation.

How do you manage situations where legal advice and commercial objectives conflict?

I approach these situations as shared business challenges rather than purely legal disagreements. The role of in-house counsel is not only to identify risks, but also to help the business understand and manage them in a commercially practical way.

My approach starts with collaboration and understanding the operational realities and strategic priorities behind a business decision. From there, I assess the relevant legal, operational, financial and reputational risks, using objective and measurable criteria whenever possible. Equally important is identifying mitigation strategies that allow the business to move forward while reducing exposure. In many cases, the solution is not a binary decision, but rather finding operational adjustments, enhanced controls or phased approaches that create an appropriate balance between growth objectives and risk management.