About

In Mexico, the Novartis Group consists of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Vision, Sandoz, Novartis Animal Health and Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. With this diversity of products and more than 1,700 employees to cover, the legal department has a large scope of responsibility ensuring all aims of the company ethos are followed through efficiently and ethically. In such a highly regulated region, the team has to consistently keep abreast of the constantly evolving legal environment. Internally, the legal department is considered an extension of the excellent performance and innovative ideas the company promotes and has recently adopted internal strategies and processes to adapt to complex changes in pharmaceutical regulation. Led by Leticia León Gonzalez, regional legal and compliance head for Latin America and Canada, the team has been able to accomplish this. León Gonzalez has been with Novartis since 2004, joining as director of legal and continuously working her way up in the ranks towards her current position. She has been an exceptional leader and significant component of the team, guiding it towards its current position as a meaningful business partner. Currently leading a team that includes 28 lawyers and 14 compliance officers, León Gonzalez is ‘proud of building a group that consider the global trends and capitalise on opportunities while preventing potential risks’. Some significant changes made to the structure of the team include forming the right balance of building effective business partnership and looking for sustainability, positioning the legal function as key decision makers rather than a solely advisor role. This, Gonzalez concedes, ‘makes tangible the value an internal lawyer adds to the company’. Amongst some of the teams’ most notable influences, one that stands out includes successful brand defense strategies established in the process of the team collaborating between geographies, internal functions and external key stakeholders in different key projects. Gonzalez says this ‘led the organisation to obtain unprecedented judicial resolutions shaping the legal environment while looking for effective partnerships and collaboration schemes’.