Team size: Nine

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

Periods of instability or crisis in or country looks like the normality. Each legal case or issue I take it with great seriousness and complete dedication. Nothing can be considered small or unimportant. Any legal problem must be addressed, analysed in depth, and all possible solutions must be sought not only from a legal view but also from a global business perspective. And after closing the problem, it is important to follow up later to make sure that there are no unwanted after-effects.

In times of crisis is when in-house lawyers must work together with the company’s crisis management team, in order to understand the problems that must be faced in the crisis. Everyone must be aligned with how to solve them. A recommendation, although it may seem very simple and basic in times of crisis, is not to make hasty decisions and rather to take as much time as necessary and calmly, so as not to make strategies or decisions without seeing the whole future picture.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

During my career as a lawyer, I had to face great challenges, but at the same time I had the opportunity to grow professionally. Starting as a trainee, I managed to become a Legal and Tax Manager in the large international firms: Deloitte, Andersen and Ernst & Young; and now I have been able to become Vice President of the largest mining company in Ecuador. Of all of which, I am proud.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

Even when we prefer to manage all legal issues with our internal legal team, it is undoubted that for some cases is valuable to work with the support of important legal firms and, in that order, we only choose the most reputable legal firms that can be aligned with our values, which are: responsibility, respect, commitment and teamwork.