About

Multinational consumer products company Procter & Gamble is serviced by a legal team dedicated to providing support to its developing Latin American markets. Led by legal head Vanessa Vargas the legal department is comprised of seven lawyers. The team is multidisciplinary and flexible, overseeing a wide range of practice areas to fully secure the company against the myriad of risks arising from doing business in developing economies. The team’s remit is defined as overseeing P&G’s activities in Central America, Panama, and the Caribbean, as well as Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia, in addition to handling all contractual and distributor related issues in Latin America for US-sourced products. Vargas oversees all legal matters and is assisted by Melissa Perez in the role of government relations manager and Juan Sebastian Crespo who is trade counsel and an anti-trust expert. In addition to these outstanding professionals is labour and employment relations counsel Jose Melgar, Monserrat Robles – real estate counsel, and corporate counsel Laila Fuertes. Michael Bruce is counsel for P&G’s Costa Rica operation, and oversees labour, taxes, commercial and Free Trade Zone matters and explains that: ‘Personal accountability is one of P&G CEO’s desired behaviours for the company’s corporate culture. Personal accountability allows each member of the team to look for additional challenges, to manage their work life balance accordingly, personal accountability makes each and every member of the team responsible for the company’s results, even when there might not be a direct link between the employee’s specific functions and company’s top or bottom line’.