Team size: 30

How has your role as in-house counsel evolved in recent years, particularly in response to changes in global or regional dynamics?

Over the past 20 years, my role as in-house counsel has evolved substantially. When I started my professional practice, the company’s in-house lawyer was focused on reviewing strictly legal processes and as a support area for the Business Units. Currently, the company’s Corporate Legal area acts as a strategic partner of the business, which intervenes dynamically in all stages of its development, not only as a support body, but also leading different processes together with a multidisciplinary team made up of other management areas (Finance, Operations, Accounting, etc.). also actively participating as a full member in different Committees implemented by the company, such as the Ethics Committee, the Regulatory Compliance Committee and the Sexual Harassment Committee. Currently, the company’s in-house counsel plays a fundamental role in the development and implementation of ongoing businesses, as well as in the development of new businesses, not being limited to the exclusive management of legal processes and/or conflict resolution.

How do you build and maintain strong relationships with key internal stakeholders, especially in high-pressure or fast-moving scenarios?

As a starting point, it is essential to determine, together with the CEO and CFO of the company, as well as with the Central Managers of the Real Estate, Hotels and New Business Units, what the objectives of the year are, as well as the issues that may generate risks and/or contingencies for the company, in order to jointly establish priorities, concrete objectives and deadlines. After that, we hold regular meetings with the key players of each business in order to define their needs, expectations and jointly determine concrete action plans. Considering that Corporate Legal Management is a key area of support for the Business Units, as well as all internal areas in a transversal way, such as Finance, Accounting, Logistics, Human Capital, Treasury, among others, constant communication and feedback is essential in the attention of processes, so that the internal client perceives that their requests are being attended to efficiently and in a timely manner.

How do you cultivate legal talent in-house, and what skills do you consider most essential for the next generation of in-house counsel?

In recent years we have been working on the development of internal legal talent, through different actions: (i) training of lawyers, through courses taught by the most prestigious universities in the country, in order to strengthen their knowledge and keep them permanently updated; (ii) constant feedback, which I consider a very powerful tool to enhance talent, which is provided periodically and in a timely manner so that each member of the team can be clear about how they are evolving in their performance, as well as what their opportunities for improvement are.

In addition to knowledge and permanent specialisation, including the incorporation of the use of artificial intelligence as a management tool, without ever neglecting analytical and reasoning skills, I consider it essential that the next generation of in-house lawyers enhance the development of soft skills, the same skills that are fundamental for the evolution of an in-house legal team. In this sense, the next generation of in-house lawyers must enhance, in addition to agile reasoning and analytical skills to provide adequate support in the development of projects and/or conflict resolution, work on the development of soft skills for assertive communication with stakeholders and internal clients, being essential the ability to adapt to constant change in business development. Develop the ability to be flexible, to unlearn and learn again, always questioning and being clear that there are no absolute truths and cultivating empathy, essential for teamwork.