Focus on my role as a general counsel

The role of in-house counsel can be summarised as a partner in business, who needs a strategic vision to consider all variables and impacts, but with a deep understanding of the company and the values, it represents. This will bring an opportunity to be a part of negotiations from start to finish, participating even in pre-planning and business strategy, having the chance to see how your legal counsel impacts when providing accurate as the first legal support.

But most of all, you need general knowledge as you never know you what your internal client is will ask you, or need from you, concerning legal advice that applies to the business. In times as uncertain as now, where changes are faster than a legal answer, as a general counsel you must be ready, reshaping the general counsel role in a quick decision-making. An example of this was the pandemic, where our responsibilities were stepping up and redefining the majority of, such as corporate, commercial contracts, labour contracts, and trials, being key participants on crisis management teams and forcing most of us to work remotely and in the need of exploring virtual ways of delivering your services, all while focusing in taking care of the well-being of our workers and running the business.

Another change in legal matters is undergoing with the process of profound transformations with the possible new constitution in Chile, that races inevitable questions in all issues, so you need to know the state of the art, the key impacts in private property, labour and union, and natural resources, and that is adding value to your legal advice, being prepared to guide your company to take proactive measures. As one can see, the variety of stakeholders and the importance on involving in different functions and skills it is what I believe that makes you a good general counsel. From one hand it is crucial to report to boards, while creating an adequate working relationship, with labour unions, co-workers and internal clients, where everyone has an opinion, which will define your active approach and role.