team size 8

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

My role is both unusual and intentionally structured to cover three closely connected areas. I lead the legal function for Autocom, an automotive group, and Engine, a technology company focused on the automotive sector. In addition, I oversee the legal and wealth management matters of the controlling group behind both companies.

During the past year, one of our most significant projects was a cross-border refinancing involving Mexico, Chile and the United States. It required coordinating financing, corporate and real estate matters across jurisdictions, as well as several groups of external counsel and advisers.

We are also supporting Engine in the ongoing acquisition of a highly regulated company in Mexico and the regional expansion of its subsidiary, Garantiplus, an extended warranty business, including the negotiation and renewal of key anchor commercial agreements in Mexico.

At the same time, we constantly evaluate partnerships, acquisitions, mergers and other local and regional opportunities. Our work also includes significant real estate and wealth-related transactions, including structured financing and transactions involving assets of the controlling group.

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

For me, the first steps in a crisis are prioritisation, delegation and communication.

Sometimes leaders understand the broader picture and the real priorities but fail to give the team enough context, and then become frustrated when people are not moving in the expected direction. I believe it is the leader’s responsibility to bring the team close to the action and explain not only what needs to be done, but why it matters.

From there, we simplify the situation into decisions: what must happen now, what can wait, what risk can we live with and what could actually hurt the business.

I want our lawyers to be practical and operational. In difficult situations, the business rarely needs a ten-page explanation. It needs someone who understands the risk, understands the business and is willing to recommend a course of action.

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

For me, it starts with business-oriented lawyers who are deeply involved in how the company actually operates. You need to understand the mindset of the salesperson, product developer, finance team and operator if you want to advise them properly.

In my current role, that means understanding automotive retail and distribution, technology, financial products, real estate and investment structures, and being involved early when we evaluate acquisitions, partnerships or new businesses.

I also believe legal and commercial teams need to continuously calibrate their risk tolerance together. A strategic lawyer is not necessarily the most risk-averse person in the room. Our job is to understand the risk, quantify it where possible, explain it clearly and help the business decide whether it is worth taking.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

Adaptability, business judgement and curiosity. Technical knowledge remains fundamental, but modern in-house lawyers also need to understand finance, technology, operations and the use of data. They need to know when an issue deserves deep legal analysis and when the business simply needs a practical answer.

What do you think is the greatest innovation you have enacted in the past year?

We have focused less on large legal technology tools and more on practical tools that solve everyday problems.

We automated and centralised the monitoring of corporate meetings, resolutions and a large portfolio of lease agreements using tools such as Monday. This gives the team clearer visibility over deadlines, approvals and responsibilities, rather than relying on individual memory or multiple spreadsheets.

We have also adopted a controlled and responsible approach to AI. Instead of unrestricted use, the team has developed and tested specific prompts and workflows for recurring tasks and specific generic transactions and agreements.

Finally, we use AI and other tools to build simpler dashboards and visual reports for the business. A salesperson does not need to understand every procedural detail of a litigation matter. They do need to know whether it may affect their P&L, when that impact could occur and whether they need to take action.