Key team members:

Alexandra Reis, Senior Counsel

Patricia Magalhães, Counsel

Margarida Riso, Counsel

Team size: Three

Major legal advisors: PLMJ, DLA Piper, Miranda & Associados

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The legal team of Tabaqueira, the Portuguese affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI), is focused on supporting the business on all fronts. Tabaqueira in Portugal not only hosts a significant manufacturing and distribution operation but also a strategically relevant Global Service Center, which includes the Finance and IT Hubs that provide financial and tech services to the entire worldwide PMI organisation. We strongly believe in-house legal teams serve as the backbone of an organisation’s strategic decision-making processes, creating value for the organisation. We build business partnerships with all areas of the business and act as strategic advisors, ensuring that legal perspectives are an integral part of the decision-making process. Notably, last year we provided legal leadership and guidance for several new product launches and successfully supported strategic business projects and initiatives. Additionally, we continue to lead our defense of litigation strategy in significant commercial/contractual legal cases.

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?

Several factors influence our decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house. High-stakes or high-risk matters necessitate external counsel to ensure thorough and unbiased handling, including major litigation, competition, or significant regulatory or compliance issues. Complexity and specialisation are also very relevant factors. If the matter requires specialised knowledge or expertise that our in-house team lacks, we will opt for external counsel. Additionally, we consider the Law firm profile in terms of innovation, diversity and inclusion policies and their ability to embrace challenges and manage projects.

What are some of the biggest legal or regulatory challenges currently facing your industry, and how is your team preparing to address them?

In general, regulatory environments worldwide are growing more intricate and complex. Our in-house legal team must contend with a growing patchwork of applicable regulations, particularly in areas such as ESG, artificial intelligence (AI), and consumer law. The tobacco industry faces stringent regulations on product manufacturing, packaging, marketing, sales, inter alia, and our team has developed a sound understanding and expertise of historic, current, and emerging regulations around tobacco and nicotine products.

However, the industry has been witnessing strong innovation with the emergence of science based and potentially less harmful nicotine products. One of the most relevant challenges we face is how to address innovation, namely in regard to smoke-free products that present a better alternative to cigarettes. While there is no question that all tobacco and nicotine products should be regulated, regulation needs to recognise scientifically substantiated smoke-free alternatives and the need to have access to, and accurate information about, such products.