About

Grupo Prodeco, Glencore’s wholly owned subsidiary in Colombia, is the country’s third largest exporter of thermal coal, generating 17 millon tonnes each year, which accounts for approximately 22% of Colombia’s total production. Led by Oscar Eduardo Gómez, the eight-strong legal function of the company has recently undergone an important alteration in its organisational structure. ‘We used to provide legal support on an “as-required-basis”, but now we are an in-house legal team operating as an internal law firm providing full-time support to each of the areas of the Prodeco Group, allowing for a client-attorney legal relationship between each of the members of the legal team and the members of the areas that require legal support’, Gómez asserts. ‘This has allowed the legal team to provide a more consistent, timely, direct and complete support on a day-to-day basis by being aware and up-to-speed as to the challenges and requirements that the operations of the companies demand at all times. The legal team has become an auto-sufficient team of prepared and updated lawyers capable of providing a complete in-house legal support to the Prodeco Group’. Characterised by a strong specialisation of individual lawyers, the team has become increasingly more responsible for dealing with issues and challenges from the very beginning, thus ensuring that individual lawyers have a direct knowledge of all operational issues faced by the company. Recently, the team captured headlines with its participation in an international arbitration initiated by Glencore International and Grupo Prodeco against the Republic of Colombia, for the alleged breach of obligations under the Swiss-Colombian Treaty for the Protection of Reciprocal Investments. In addition to providing legal support to the company, the legal team has made considerable effort to construct a working relationship based on trust with government agents which according to Gómez ‘has enabled its members to have a close day-to-day contact with the main government stakeholders allowing for a fluid exchange of ideas between them in order to overcome these challenges within the legal framework currently in place’. Besides its leader, the team features several prominent lawyers, including legal manager Natalia Anaya and lawyers Jader Yubran and Juan Lucas González.