Interview with: Cynthia Calligaro, Partner – S-Latam Legal Leader Marketplace Cono Sur

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Deloitte Legal - Legal y Fiscal S.A.

S-Latam Legal Leader of the Marketplace Cono Sur Cynthia Calligaro explains how the firm is adapting to client´s changing needs

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Deloitte Legal from your competitors?

We pride ourselves on our continued commitment to our clients. We analyze our clients’ needs to offer pragmatic solutions oriented to improve heir businesses. We care as much about our clients’ long term success as we do about the short-term outcome of a project.

Our practice is both service and industry aligned, with teams specializing in Corporate and M&A, Commercial; Law, Employment & Benefits, Foreign Trade & Customs and Tax Controversy.

For instance in this peculiar 2020 we are helping clients to move rapidly into the recovery phase of the COVID-19 crisis. We shared with them legal thought leadership pieces and several webinars. These have been useful to assist them through new market realities as: laws relating to state aid and other government support; impact on contracts (dispute resolution, force majeure & MAC clauses); safe returning to the workplace and other employee engagement strategies to promote workplace engagement; how to transform their legal operating model for the “new normal”, etc.

A usual answer to this question would be that “we understand our client and his/her needs and listen very carefully” but who doesn´t? Very often, it is much better to listen than to speak and I think this is what any service provider should do and usually does. The difference is that when we as Deloitte do this we can bring a comprehensive offering to our clients as we connect them with other Deloitte´s specialist in M&A, Financial Advisory, Tax, Risk Advisory, and Consulting -among others– giving a holistic approach to our legal advice. This is what allows us to provide our clients the added value they are looking for in this new reality.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

Probably this would be digital law and capital markets. The new global scenario shows technology is driving a fast changing revolution all around the globe. This means that even the most traditional businesses (from the smallest to the largest companies) will need to do a catch up to adjust their business to new technology, marketing channels, distribution problems, expansion issues from a legal and financial perspective. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, getting financing will be a big challenge so capital markets may appear as an alternative together with cryptocurrency.

To have advisors that fully understand how to assist them and be a driver and enabler of new solutions will be a key component in the evolution of businesses.

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

Last year Deloitte´s offices from sixteen countries from Mexico to Argentina integrated themselves to be able to provide services in a coordinated way around Latin America. This will allow our clients to have a seamless service as well as more competitive fee quotations.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Indeed. Technology is not only changing our clients’ needs but also ours. Clients want to have legal providers that speak the same language. To achieve that we were obliged to design a plan to understand our clients’ challenges and to see how we could offer more efficient and less time-consuming solutions. It is a fact that COVID-19 crisis put all of us to get creative. For example, we are working closely to our clients helping them to implement remote shareholders´ meetings, using worldwide platforms to check the corporate compliance status of all their entities in different countries, helping them to enhance their legal operating model, etc.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

A practical example I could quote could be one that took place this last year when we detected that a client was registering an extremely high provision for different types of judicial cases. After running several processes and checking their legal process, we were able to help them to reorganize the task flow between different areas of the company including the administration of judicial cases. They were duplicating the provision because of a poor litigation management. It is not that the provision they were considering was wrong. Certain delays and miscommunication between internal departments of the company (e.g., legal, accounting and the payment sector) caused interests and fines that wouldn´t have been due is they had recorded the ruling timely and payed the amount arising from those rulings in time.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

The market has and is becoming more competitive. Nevertheless, I think it is not that much stability and strategic direction what they are expecting from their law firms but consistency and a seamless legal service. In three-years´ time, Deloitte Legal will provide not only the commonly known legal practice areas but will become a key player when it comes to legal technology.