Team size: 6

What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

A significant part of our work has focused on supporting international audiovisual productions filming in the Dominican Republic, both for major studios and independent producers. We also work on Dominican features, whether produced in-house or on a service-provider basis. This includes production services and legal arrangements, deal memos, permits, and work documentation for foreign and local cast and crew, insurance requirements, location use, clearances, talent and crew agreements, withholding obligations, and compliance with the Dominican film incentive regime. We have also advised on eligible local expenditure and the documentation required for tax credit purposes.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

During periods of instability or crisis, my approach is practical, preventive, and closely aligned with the business. I first focus on understanding the facts, identifying the immediate risks, and separating urgent issues from matters that can be managed over time. From there, I assess the legal, regulatory, financial, reputational, and operational consequences of each possible course of action.
I place strong emphasis on clear documentation, internal approvals, and coordinated communication with finance, operations, production, human resources, external counsel, and senior management. In my view, the legal function should not simply say “no”; it should help the organisation choose the most defensible, commercially reasonable path while preserving continuity, protecting reputation, and supporting long-term resilience.

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. What does being strategic mean to you?

To me, being strategic as general counsel means understanding the business well enough to anticipate risk before it becomes a problem, and providing legal advice that supports decision-making rather than delays it. It is not only about knowing the law; it is about understanding the organisation’s priorities, commercial pressures, operational realities, and long-term objectives.

A strategic legal function should help management see around corners. That means identifying where legal, regulatory, financial, reputational, and operational risks intersect, and then proposing practical options. For an in-house lawyer, strategy also means knowing when to be firm, when to be flexible, and how to align legal protection with business continuity.

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?

One trend I am closely watching is the increasing importance of regulatory compliance, documentation, and governance in fast-moving industries such as media, entertainment, and cross-border services. International counterparties expect local companies to operate with a higher level of structure, transparency, and contractual discipline, often expecting best practices that local regulations have not yet caught up to.