What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The pandemic years were crossed by digital transformation and new technologies. These changes impacted very positively on the company, allowing us to operate remotely without facing disruptions in our business and functions. However, working from home has represented a challenge for us in terms of how we manage and protect our data and the data that our customers entrust us.

Moreover, individuals’ awareness about their personal data rights continuously increases, while we see permanently an increase of the exposure to legal and reputational risks in major and well-known companies, due to leaks or unlawful use of individuals personal data. During the pandemic years, our legal team has focused on learning and staying alongside the latest trends in the data privacy field, and we have been engaged in several initiatives aimed to generate awareness within associates, on the proper use of data and the consequences of its unlawful use, identifying vulnerabilities, assessing risks, and implementing the proper safeguards to avoid the company to incur in data privacy risks.

Speaking of digital development and marketing initiatives, we were engaged in various projects that meant streamlining the business process, such as the production of a digital form of insurance policies application, which boosted the lines of business capabilities to capture new business opportunities. Another example of this is the process of conversion of corporate books and records from physical to digital, which the legal department led, permitting the functions to meet their legal needs, while also streamlining the process of record keeping.

Additionally, as it relates to the corporate governance field of action, we implemented virtual board and shareholders meetings, which involved the analysis of the viability under the regulatory perspective.

Moreover, we worked on adapting to a new national regulatory framework which required certain corporations to observe gender parity in their board of directors. This effort entailed an analysis of the regulation and its influence, the naming of MetLife entities impacted by the requirement, the selection of candidates needed to be appointed to the board and making sure that they were fully compliant with the legal requirements and the internal policies, executing all necessary actions to obtain the internal approvals, and making the required filings before the local authorities for their registration.

Finally, regarding mergers and acquisitions, the last couple of years we have been engaged in two transactions, which entailed a deep involvement of the legal team as we walked through all the stages of these transactions, beginning with the execution of the due diligences, moving forward with the obtention of the regulatory approvals needed, and ending up with the closings, all during the times of lockdown which has posed a great challenge for the legal department.