Can you tell us about your journey to becoming an in-house counsel? What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?  
 
My career as an in-house lawyer began when I worked as an intern in the legal department of the University of Monterrey. Later I did an internship and then my first job at Proeza – one of the largest Mexican companies in the automotive industry – both in the international area and in M&A.  
 
This opportunity paved the way for me to gain experience in mergers and acquisitions and divestiture agreements in different countries such as the United States, Brazil, Germany, and China. One of my first projects was gathering evidence of claims in a post-acquisition arbitration, which shaped my career and interest in being an in-house counsel. For a decade, I held various positions until I became manager of legal affairs for M&A, Financing and Venture Capital.  
 
The fact that my largest client was the strategic planning department inspired me to pursue a career as an in-house counsel with specialised business knowledge. Later my career took a turn in the retail industry, at Home Depot Mexico, with a broader scope of responsibilities that made me continually learn and fall in love with my role as in-house lawyer.  
 
In your role as an in-house counsel, what are the main responsibilities and tasks you handle on a day-to-day basis?  
 
I lead the corporate and real estate teams, driving business and cultural impact. My team offers legal guidance for approximately 650 matters each quarter. I oversee a number of areas including the expansion projects, new store and distribution centre acquisitions, and leases, offering legal counsel for construction projects, and the contract negotiation and management for 1,000 vendors, 150,000 PRO clients, and 153,000 suppliers. I am also responsible for the tax, financing, and corporate governance advisory, expertise in competition issues, including liaising with COFECE during investigations, as well as data privacy oversight and I am a member of the Data Privacy Home Depot Committee. 
 
Furthermore, in my role I am tasked with reviewing and approving advertising material for HDM’s marketing strategy across 135 stores, managing 20 intellectual property litigations and a portfolio of 1,000+ trademarks, providing legal counsel to IT, including information security. Finally, I offer legal guidance for on supply chain matters and offered energy-related legal advice.  
 
What are some of the key challenges you have faced as a rising star in-house counsel, and how have you overcome them?  
 
As a corporate senior manager, I encountered the challenge of finding a balance between being a business partner and communicating risks in a timely manner. I have been able to overcome this challenge by maintaining active involvement in projects and open, trusting communication with my clients. On the other hand, facing non-diverse environments around the world has been an opportunity to prove my capacity and skills in the corporate world as a woman and a mother.  
 
Another challenge in my journey was leading multi-jurisdictional transactions, coordinating law firms, and conducting due diligence in different countries at the same time. What helped me was standardising processes and gaining project management skills.  
 
What steps have you taken to enhance your professional development and expand your legal skill set?  
 
A key step in my career was completing my MBA in IPADE’s MEDEX programme. It was especially important for me to learn about business valuation and other financial issues to better understand my clients and develop my management skills with responsibility for the legal team under my leadership.  
 
Furthermore, since it was very important to continuously train myself, I took a legal English course at Cambridge, a WIPO certification, and a personal data course at Anáhuac University. I believe that to be a good lawyer you need to enrich your range of experiences, that is why it is especially important for my career that I take risks and take initiative to lead new business areas.