About

Brazilian media conglomerate Grupo Abril is the leading and most influential group of communication, education and logistics in Latin America. Since its foundation as a small publisher in 1950, the company has become increasingly relevant to Brazil’s publishing culture, becoming the second largest magazine in the world with over one million issues printed every week and an established digital presence comprising of 73 websites. The legal function is led by general counsel Arnaldo Tibyriçá who stresses: ‘In Brazil, lawyers don’t review the editorial material before it goes public. The right way to do this is to educate the managers and teams’. It is to this end that the legal team is key in educating internal teams and managers to avoid risk in regards to finalising editorial material, fervently emphasising a culture of education that aligns with the ethical and moral values of the company. Constantly introducing innovations to the company, most recently the team has been behind creating a user manual of the legal department which informs the company about potential liabilities that they can bring to the company and themselves, subsequently resulting in the reduction of litigation. Made up of 13 lawyers, four interns and two support staff the legal team has recently downsized its headcount as a result of the economic environment, nevertheless enabling them to be more effective and efficient when dealing with the broad range of areas their clients bring to the table, mainly including finance, media and logistics. The legal team has created tools and processes that have helped intervention within internal clients’ organisation. Considered a very ‘united’ function, the legal team gets recognition from the company for its relentless passion and interest in educating the company on topics involving legal risk and media law. Tibyriçá adds: ‘I’m very happy to say that the legal team is very united and very in sync and enthusiastic. This is not easy but we don’t consider it just a business, but a cause, and we are happy to be here.’