Short biography

Soirée Fernández Melo is Senior Legal Manager at CARDNET, one of the Dominican Republic’s leading payment companies. She is a corporate lawyer with more than 15 years of experience providing legal advice and leading the legal function within the electronic payments and financial services industry.

Throughout her career, she has developed legal strategies that support innovation, structure new business models and guide transformation initiatives in highly regulated environments. Her expertise includes payment systems regulation, acquiring, corporate contracting, strategic negotiations, corporate governance and enterprise legal risk management.

She believes the Legal department should be a business enabler. Her approach integrates legal, commercial and operational perspectives, helping organisations turn regulatory complexity into practical solutions that support informed decision-making, sustainable growth and innovation. She is recognised for building trusted relationships with senior management and regulators, leading multidisciplinary teams and combining sound legal judgement with a practical business mindset.

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

Over the past year, much of our work has focused on supporting the company’s strategic priorities in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

One of our main priorities has been supporting the implementation of the Dominican Republic’s new Payment Systems Regulation and the development of the Central Bank’s Instant Payments Management System (SGPI). This has required close collaboration with our Business, Operations, Technology and Risk teams to assess regulatory requirements, support new payment solutions and help structure business models that align innovation with compliance.

At the same time, we have continued to support complex commercial negotiations, strengthen our contractual framework and provide practical legal advice that helps the business make informed decisions while managing legal and regulatory risk.

For me, the best legal work happens when Legal is involved from the beginning, helping to shape the solution rather than reviewing it once all the decisions have already been made.

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

We are currently navigating two significant changes at the same time.

On the one hand, the payments industry in the Dominican Republic is undergoing a major transformation with the implementation of the Central Bank’s Instant Payments Management System (SGPI). This initiative will have a direct impact on the interbank payment system we currently operate, while also introducing new payment channels that enable instant account-to-account transfers using mobile phone aliases and QR technology, similar to Brazil’s PIX.

At the same time, our organisation is undergoing a leadership transition with the appointment of a new CEO. This presents an opportunity to align the legal function with a renewed business vision while continuing to provide consistency, sound judgement and trusted advice throughout the transition.

In this kind of environment, my role is to understand what is changing, identify the legal and regulatory implications early, and work closely with different teams so that decisions can be made with confidence. I believe Legal should help reduce uncertainty by providing practical advice, encouraging collaboration and keeping the organisation focused on its objectives while adapting to change.

For me, resilience is not only about managing risk; it is about helping the business adapt, innovate and move forward responsibly.

What does being strategic mean to you?

To me, being strategic means understanding the business before giving legal advice.

My studies in Legal Strategy reinforced something I have experienced throughout my career: Legal creates the greatest value when it helps connect business objectives, regulation, operations and execution.

That is why I believe Legal should be part of the conversation from the beginning, helping the business understand legal implications, anticipate risks, identify opportunities and find practical ways to achieve its objectives.

Good legal advice is not only about answering legal questions. It is about helping the business make better decisions by using the legal and regulatory framework as a competitive advantage.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

Strong legal knowledge is essential, but today it is not enough.

Modern in-house counsel must understand the business, communicate clearly and build trust across the organisation. People value lawyers who can explain complex issues simply and help them make better decisions.

I also believe curiosity and adaptability are key. Business, technology and regulation continue to evolve, particularly in the payments industry, so continuous learning is an essential part of the role.

Above all, I believe our role is to help the business make better decisions by combining sound legal judgement, proactive legal risk management and a forward-looking regulatory perspective that turns change into opportunity.