Team size: 2 people, including myself.

What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

Successful trade remedies/anti-dumping cases before the Dominican Trade Defense Commission (Comisión Reguladora de Prácticas Desleales en el Comercio y sobre Medidas de Salvaguardias). The cases are related to corrugated steel bars (reinforcement bars or rebars) imports from Turkey, Costa Rica and China. The “sunset” review on the case against Turkey just recently finished, with the Commission deciding to extend the anti-dumping duties for five (5) more years. The other two cases are still at an initial phase.

Financing transactions. From project financing for the construction, installation and start-up of the necessary equipment and machinery for our production lines, to working capital facilities, debt restructuring, refinancing and derivatives, in Metaldom, S.A. we have engaged in the negotiation and closing of multiple financing transactions relevant to our business, and that are key to ensuring our ability to stay competitive, to innovate and to quickly adapt to the market and meet our clients’ needs.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

It has become increasingly important for companies to have a solid business continuity plan in place, considering the many world events happening nowadays that trigger crises and disruptions across many commercial activities, markets and economies. It is fundamental for us, as General Counsel, to work together with management in the construction and periodic revisions of such business continuity plan, in order to make sure that it follows an effective legal strategy and is backed up by a structure of binding contracts, agreements and guarantees with key business associates (i.e. suppliers and customers). It is also important to assure that such legal strategy is consistent with and responds to the needs of the company’s purpose and roadmap for the following years. This approach led us to quickly adapt to and successfully overcome global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the logistics and shipping crisis, the war in Ukraine, and most recently, the conflict between the US and Iran over the control and shipping rights in the Strait of Hormuz.

How can general counsel foster a corporate culture that supports ESG principles and compliance across all levels of the organisation?

Our company has set as one of its core values to be a regional leader in ESG practices, and carries out many initiatives to promote and expand such practices across the entire value chain. As General Counsel, we work together with our Environment and Sustainability departments to ensure full compliance with the applicable laws and regulations, and also embrace the best corporate governance practices for the decision-making process. We play the role of “Ambassadors” of this ESG culture across all levels of our organisation.

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?

The surge in the use of Artificial Intelligence for seeking legal advice at a corporate level, instead of relying on the opinion or counsel of a proper legal expert (in-house or external). AI has become increasingly useful for many things, including legal advice, but there are certain risks involved in such use cases that are not always considered by companies and their internal departments, such as no attorney-client privilege, lack of confidentiality protection, jurisdiction gaps, misinterpretation of local statutes, use of outdated regulations or precedents, limited context, limited knowledge of the business or industry’s reality, and/or the company’s core values, governance, corporate guidelines and best practices, among others. As with any emerging technology, using AI for seeking legal advice at a corporate level should be done wisely, with a lot of care, and with the assistance and close supervision of the General Counsel, to avoid risks, lack of compliance and costly mistakes for the company.