What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?
Over the past year, our legal team has been closely involved in the operation and maintenance of large-scale water and sanitation infrastructure projects in Panama, including wastewater treatment and sewer network systems. These projects require continuous legal support in contract administration, compliance, and interface management with public sector counterparts. We also worked on a project to revamp and enhance the capabilities of the biggest drinking water in El Salvador.
A key area of focus has been the management of contractual claims and the recovery of outstanding payments under long-term public contracts. This has involved structuring legally sound positions while maintaining constructive engagement with government entities, balancing enforcement with relationship management. We have also supported the negotiation and review of international supply agreements for water treatment infrastructure projects in the Caribbean, working under FIDIC-based contractual frameworks. These transactions required careful risk allocation, alignment with technical specifications, and coordination across multiple jurisdictions.
In parallel, the team has played a central role in advising on regulatory, operational, and strategic matters to ensure the continuity and efficiency of essential public services.
How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
In periods of instability, my approach is based on three principles: clarity, prioritisation, and alignment with the business.
First, it is critical to establish a clear legal and contractual position. This means identifying rights, obligations, and risk exposure early, and ensuring that all actions taken by the business are consistent with that framework. Second, prioritisation is key. Not all risks require immediate escalation, so the legal team must focus on issues that could materially impact operations, cash flow, or stakeholder relationships. And third, something that in my view is fundamental for an In house counsel: alignment with business objectives. Legal strategy should not operate in isolation; it must support operational continuity and long-term positioning. This often involves adopting pragmatic solutions, maintaining open communication with counterparties, and avoiding unnecessarily adversarial approaches. Also very important, resilience comes from combining technical legal rigor with sound judgment and a deep understanding of the operational context.
What does being strategic mean to you?
Being strategic as an in-house lawyer means going beyond legal analysis and actively contributing to business decision making. It requires understanding the commercial drivers of the organisation, anticipate risks, when possible, before they materialize, and designing legal solutions that enable and not hinder the company operations. In practice, this involves early involvement in projects (very important), structuring contracts with a long-term perspective, and ensuring that legal considerations are embedded in the company’s overall strategy. A strategic legal function is one that is proactive, commercially aware, and capable of influencing outcomes.
What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?
A modern in-house counsel must combine technical knowledge with business acumen. Legal knowledge is essential, but not sufficient. Key attributes include:
• The ability to translate complex legal issues into clear, actionable advice
• Strong judgment in high-pressure situations
• Commercial awareness and understanding of the business
• Communication skills to engage effectively with non-legal stakeholders
• Pragmatism and solution-oriented thinking
In addition, credibility and trust are fundamental. The legal function must be seen as a partner to the business, not just a control mechanism.
Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?
One of the most relevant trends is the increasing complexity of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and public-sector contracting in infrastructure and energy projects, particularly in markets like Panama where these models continue to evolve. Fiscal constraints are driving governments to adopt more sophisticated contractual structures, which in turn increases the importance of robust risk allocation, contract management, and dispute avoidance mechanisms.
At the same time, I am closely following the rapid development of artificial intelligence tools applied to legal work. These technologies are beginning to transform how legal departments operate, particularly in areas such as contract analysis, document automation, and knowledge management. While the efficiency gains are significant, their adoption also raises important questions around data protection, confidentiality, and reliability of outputs. For in-house teams, the challenge is not only to leverage these tools effectively, but to do so within a clear governance framework that ensures compliance and preserves legal judgment. In my view, the legal function is entering a phase where technological literacy will become as important as legal expertise, and those teams that manage to integrate both will have a clear strategic advantage.