Shana C. Smith – GC Powerlist
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United States 2019

Shana C. Smith

General counsel and corporate secretary | NII Holdings

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United States 2019

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Shana C. Smith

General counsel and corporate secretary | NII Holdings

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Shana C. Smith, vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of NII Holdings, is responsible for advising senior management and the board of directors on all legal matters for the publicly-traded wireless telecommunications company operating in Latin America. She reports to the chief executive officer and is a member of NII’s executive leadership team providing legal analysis and advice regarding strategic initiatives and risk mitigation strategies. She is highly skilled in US public company corporate governance, securities law compliance, executive compensation, public and private financings, M&A transactions, litigation, HR-related issues, including ethics and compliance programmes, as well as trademark, IP, international corporate governance, tax and compliance issues. She supervises a highly regarded team of in-house and outside lawyers, human resources and facilities personnel. NII Holdings has a complex international corporate structure with legal entities in 10 different countries with vastly different legal structures and governance requirements. Smith highlights that ‘it has been a steep, but extremely interesting, learning curve to get up to speed in each of these different jurisdictions. It has also been a true pleasure working with so many different lawyers from around the world’. She has overseen the sale of operations in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina following a period of bankruptcy and restructuring at the company. On this period she identifies that ‘living through a bankruptcy is both a nightmare and one of the greatest experiences for growth for an attorney. It demands both precise legal and strategic thought and forces you to consider issues from a number of different vantage points. One of the most trying legal situations I have been in’. She has also consolidated outside counsel in different jurisdictions and fostered closer ties between legal groups in different countries to improve processes and manage costs, and consolidated the in-house team within markets to ensure direct reporting. Smith highlights that to be a great in-house lawyer, ‘you need to be seen as a business partner first and a legal specialist second. Make sure you thoroughly understand the business and the issues that keep you clients up at night, and learn to read and understand financial statements’.

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