About

Consistently named on the Fortune 500 list of companies, 3M is a multinational conglomerate corporation operating in the fields of industry, worker safety, health care, and consumer goods. Agustín Spagnollo currently serves as corporate legal counsel for 3M’s Southern Cone region, covering Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, in charge of all relevant legal aspects. ‘He has been working in various functions within the legal department, providing advice on several relevant and strategic projects of the company’, according to a nominator. Spagnollo joined the Argentine subsidiary of 3M in 2011 after working briefly for a law firm, being the main counsel for the local consumer business group and the drug delivery systems division, and responsible for 3M Uruguay’s legal department. Until October 2018, Spagnollo also worked in compliance and business conduct functions, providing counsel on business-ethics matters and was overseeing the corporate compliance programme in Argentina and Uruguay. Since 2017, Spagnollo has been serving as privacy and cybersecurity counsel for Latin America, providing advice in the implementation of strategic projects for the region, and supporting the development of new processes and policies. In 2017 Spagnollo was nominated for 3M’s Latin America pyramid of excellence award for his legal contribution to the deployment of an innovative new business model for the local safety and graphics business group. In his current assignment, Spagnollo is the main counsel for Argentina and Uruguay operations, responsible for providing legal support to the five business groups of the company, as well as working closely with the regional top management to contribute driving 3M’s growth and strategic priorities. According to Spagnollo, ‘being an in-house lawyer at a diverse, innovative company like 3M is a very interesting challenge for legal professionals, as the wide scope of the company’s businesses demands counsels to be prepared to deal with very different issues, related to various legal areas of expertise’. In charge of the implementation of productivity programmes for the legal department, Spagnollo has developed local KPIs for claims and litigation in accordance with global standards. In addition, Spagnollo has made substantial efforts to standardise and simplify the agreement-signing process. By cooperating with other departments and transferring the responsibility of handling, signing and storing process of contracts, the legal team could prioritise and focus on the issuance of contract templates and leading legal negotiations. The results have largely enhanced the efficiency and productivity of the legal team, ‘releasing valuable time for the team to focus more on strategic projects, and allowing us to deliver higher value-added services’, Spagnollo comments.