About

Praised by his peers as ‘a first class professional with vast experience and solid knowledge’ and ‘an intelligent, proactive and hardworking lawyer’, Juan Manuel Ballarena is the head of legal affairs at Scienza Argentina, managing all legal affairs of the company in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as pharmaceutical regulatory issues, compliance and government affairs. Scienza Argentina is a leading company in the commercialisation, distribution and management of medicines for oncological treatments, antiretroviral, transplants and special therapies. With more than 12 years of experience in the legal services industry, Ballarena is a regional corporate counsel and compliance professional with cross-functional expertise in corporate law and international contract analysis and negotiation, providing legal advice to facilitate business and manage legal actions to protect the company’s interests. He started his career at the Marval, O’Farrel & Mairal law firm, later practicing at Llerena & Asociados Abogados where ‘he was able to deepen my knowledge as a lawyer working in big law firms’, he says. He then joined the Spanish multinational company Codere as a junior legal counsel. After a few years there, he had the opportunity to develop as a senior legal counsel at Lineas del Norte, an SPV formed by major construction companies in Argentina. In 2012, he accepted the challenge of joining Scienza Argentina as its senior legal counsel to develop the legal department, and was promoted to the head of legal department role in 2013. The legal department was created after his arrival, and Ballarena changed other departments’ understanding of the in-house function by creating and maintaining a good relationship with them, with an aim to anticipate possible conflicts and protect the company’s interests. By working with managers from other functions of the company, Ballarena implemented the company ethics code in 2015, which was seen as a “game changer” regarding the company’s compliance culture. He has also been developing Scienza Argentina’s data privacy policy. When asked about major transactions that he’s been involved in, he comments: ‘I participated in two important real estate projects that the company developed, and actively contributed in the acquisition of a company in Uruguay which is currently known as Scienza Uruguay’. Ballarena understands the role of an in-house counsel as ‘a service provider for its various internal clients, and to give the best advice one should know the business well. Nowadays I can say I have become a business partner of the company’.