About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department?

The legal and compliance department aims to support the decision making process of the directors and to work together with the main interlocutors of Logicalis processes, management processes and value chair in order to execute a better assessment of the risks to which Logicalis is subject, and ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The team is also responsible for the management and operation of the Integrity Management System, whose main objective is to ensure compliance with the elements of our conduct that incorporates the anti-corruption policy guidelines, and is designed to support the organisation in the prevention, detection and reaction to practices contrary to anti-corruption and bribery laws. It is positioned as one of the company’s support areas. Its activities are carried out in a preventive manner (advising on the definitions of instruments necessary to minimise inherent risks and ruling out possible ones) and on a timely basis (assessing possible action plans in the face of legal and legal problems). The area is directly involved in the company’s strategic issues and therefore participates in the evaluation and structuring of procedures, offers, proposals or any other activity that does not have a defined standard. It also acts in the elaboration, review and implementation of good corporate governance practices, especially those related to anti-corruption policies and code of conduct. Its role is to review these documents and suggest policy implementation instruments.

What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has been involved with in the last two years?

The most significant project this year was the obtaining of the ISO 37.001 (an anti-bribery management system). It meant so much to us, especially because this is a new, and particularly tough certification, and Logicalis is one of the first organisations in Brazil to obtain it. It has been an intense period of auditing and it is such an important achievement for our team who has been working so hard on that matter for more than six months. By obtaining this certification, we proved not only the robustness of our practices – especially in the compliance matter- but also the greatness of our company in such a complex business environment as Latin America.

What attributes are essential for an in-house legal team to possess?

In my opinion, the legal team needs to have an easy way to talk to other areas (non-legal), especially when it comes to legal matters, which are so technical. Also, I think it is important that
the legal team does not stick to legal matters, but also get involved in company issues, especially because we are frequently consulted about risky situations involving the company. I think it is important to the legal team to deeply understand the business that the company is involved in, so we can offer honest insights about any situation. Being able to deliver insights in risky situations is something that surely is important for us. Another important aspect is to offer somewhat quick answers to meet business agility. But of course, without losing the quality of work.

What are the most difficult hurdles to overcome when attempting to demonstrate value added by the legal team?

Legal is usually known as a “sales prevention team”. We need to work hard in order to make the other areas understand we are not a “sales prevention team”. We are part of the team to make things happen in a creative way so the company complies with the law and does not take unnecessary risks. And sometimes it can be really difficult, because who wants to hear that what they want to do – which can apparently be so good to business – will cause them future legal issues? While it can be difficult to take bad news like this, in the future, we know that the company will benefit significantly by avoiding so many issues. Looking objectively at situations to determine how it will legally impact the business and the company and be honest and firm about it, while it can be unpleasant is absolutely essential.

What “legal tech” products does the team utilise? What is useful about the products and how could they be improved?

We still do not use “legal tech” products. We have a system to manage the requests of legal demands, contracts and others. This system was developed internally and is used by various departments. It is a tool that helps the other areas to request our help, consult or analysis when they need. I think it’s worth mentioning that we have a whistleblower channel implemented via a system. It is not exactly a “legal tech product” but it is a very important system, anonymous and run by a third party company. As for the “legal tech” products themselves, we are working closely with our consulting team to identify products that might interfere and help the department.

Is diversity and inclusion as a matter of internal policy on the agenda at your company? How much influence do you, as an in-house legal team, have on the diversity and inclusion policies of your organisation?

Yes, diversity and inclusion is a matter of internal policy and is on the agenda at Logicalis. The same is applicable for my legal team. We even have a person with some special needs on our staff. We focus on its development and learn from it every day. We work very close to HR, marketing and the directors in the reviewing of such documents, practices and initiatives.

Have any new laws, government policies, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

Yes, we are working with the implementation of LGPD (Brazilian data law) and GPDR (European General Data Protection Regulation). We have a team of experts in this matter within the company and we are also working very closely with the director of information security to implement models, processes, etc. It is worth remembering that we had been working on this whole process well before the Brazilian law. As we have our headquarter company in Europe we have already started to develop all this material when the European law was implemented.