What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The most demanding challenge I have faced this year was the acquisition of a last mile delivery company in a one-week process. In this transaction the challenges came from having to draft documents which covered the company from the risks involved in this acquisition with almost no due diligence of the target company, because of the deadlines involved in the process and having to coordinate teams located in different jurisdictions. Additionally, the documents were governed by New York law. The sellers in this process were European companies, so the transference of an important part of the assets acquired were governed by European law. Furthermore, an escrow account structure was implemented with a Peruvian bank to secure some post-closing obligations of the seller’s.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

In my opinion, artificial intelligence will have a central role in the legal industry, changing the set of skills we need to have as lawyers in order to continue providing a quality service. Artificial intelligence is a very powerful tool for legal practitioners, it allows us to save time dedicated to routine activities and to dedicate our attention fully on the matters where we generate added value. However, as any other tool, artificial intelligence still needs a human hand to wield it correctly. Legal skills such as clarity of language and the ability to convey ideas concisely will help lawyers using artificial intelligence as a tool to design prompts that lead to more efficient outcomes.

Taking this into account, in-house legal teams will be formed by professionals who have that set of skills and the role of the team will be more focused on “translating” the business´ needs into clear and concise prompts to be processed by artificial intelligence and then curated and executed by said legal team.

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why? 

The business-related cause I care about is how to organise the in-house legal department to provide a more efficient service, accompanying the growth of the business without sacrificing the quality of the legal advice we provide. This is a challenge we face in our company nowadays because, despite the political situation that Peru has gone through this year, the company’s business did not stop growing at a rapid rate and with it the workload of the legal team increased greatly during this last period.

After doing a research on how legal departments can be organised to provide efficient services, we had to restructure the responsibilities of each member of the team and develop more efficient ways of interacting with our internal clients, seeking to get involved in those tasks where we really generate added value and delegating to other areas those tasks that did not really have a legal content. This search for efficiency also gave us an opportunity to review the technological tools we work with, which led us to the implementation of a document management software to continue improving the services we provide to our internal customers.

I care about this cause because I consider that by organising the legal departments in a smarter way, they can dedicate their attention on matter that really generate an impact in the core business of the company.