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The Brazilian conglomerate Formitex has a formidable legal team headed by esteemed corporate lawyer Amira Chammas. Just over a year-and-a-half into her role, Chammas has hit the ground running and has successfully implemented fundamental changes to the team. These include 10 transformative new policies and controls to ensure the department acts within corporate governance rules, a legal management system and an interface between the legal department and the operation areas. Now, the eight person function embraces a culture of team-work and cooperation. Lawyers with different levels of experience are, according to Chammas, ‘able to work together and openly exchange information and [are] capable of doing all the jobs even if we have vacations, maternity leave or any other absences’. Recently, the team introduced a system of online and remote access of relevant suits, processes and cases worked on by external counsel. ‘This change brought to the legal department more agility and saved lots of time on the part of the internal lawyers,’ Chammas explains.