Team size: Twelve

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

In the last year we have been involved in two major transactions involving different areas of law and important institutional relations work. The first involved an important substantive labor law work that began with the definition of a strategy that mapped the potential decisions of the Federal Supreme Court and the theses that could directly impact the Company’s liabilities, which totaled BR$1bn at the time. We started mapping the profiles of Justices and, with that, we began to prepare specific theses in the individual defenses, envisioning a potential decision on appeal that could impact the Company’s cases individually and in cascade.

In the last year, we worked to allocate some of the company’s resources, succeeding in the strategy that culminated in the application of the STF’s understanding in more than 42 cases of the Company, which together added up to a provision of more than BR$120mn. This strategy required action from litigation to collective agreements with unions and the preparation of specific appeals to the Superior Courts. The second case was the opening of an IPO in Europe, estimated at more than €25mn, an event that, without the team’s performance, would not have occurred with the success that occurred.

From the preparation of policies, to the previous work of prevention, risk control and, mainly, certifications of the Company’s compliance program (ISO 37001 and UNE 19601) in the same year and in the year were fundamental for the good evaluation of the Company. The team worked tirelessly on the standardisation of policies and corporate governance in order to standardise the countries of LATAM to the controlling group, Not to mention the always preventive look of previous years that built a solid basis for the event to take place.

What new pressures are you facing from the business as expectations for the legal department to act as a strategic partner continue to grow?

With the company’s IPO, there is no doubt that the legal department is under even greater pressure to solve the liabilities already constituted, bringing savings and less impact on results, and incessant work in preventive and pre-litigation. Strategies are increasingly defined with a view to the business in order to prevent not only litigation, but mainly any and all issues that may cause reputational damage to the company. There is no doubt that any negative brand exposure generates an immediate impact on the share price and, therefore, and because it is a recent IPO, the role of the legal department has become even more relevant.