Interview with: Matías Zegers, Managing Partner (Chile office)

What do you see as the main points that differentiate DLA Piper Chile from your competitors?

One of our main differences is that we are part of a global firm since 2017. In essence, this puts us in a position that allows us to assist Chilean companies in their legal needs, not only locally, but in practically all those jurisdictions in which they want to do business, keeping our office as the only counterpart for these purposes. We offer our client to be a one-stop shop in more than 40 jurisdictions allowing us to offer services and fees tailored to each client while still providing continuity in our services, which are always client oriented.

Another difference is that we are very committed to our clients, providing them legal advice, but also understanding the sectors in which they operate. As a matter of fact, our groups are organized by practice areas and sectors, as we believe that knowing our clients’ business makes the difference in the correct understanding of their needs and allows us to add value to their business decisions and activities. In addition, for each client, we create a customized working team composed of lawyers who understand clients´ commercial needs in both national and international spheres.

Finally, we believe we are an innovative firm, doing a permanent effort in analyzing “what” we do and “how” we do it. For example, we were pioneers establishing the first practice group in Chile specialized in Venture Capital, Corporate Governance or renewable energy legal services, and also in using tools like Aiscension, a cartel risk-management tool based in Artificial Intelligence.

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

As consequence of digital transformation, we believe that our practices of Venture Capital, Fintech and Data Protection will keep growing.

Technology is an industry closely related with Venture Capital, consequently we believe that such practice will continue expanding in all ranges of companies, from start-ups, fast growing, mid-market businesses to global companies. Chilean entrepreneurship ecosystem has matured during the last years, with several national unicorns, for example. Also, as consequence of such maturity we foresee that starts-up will be demanding more legal advice.

Disruptive innovation is occurring across the Fintech industry value chain, in such areas as payments and billing technology, trading and clearing, lending, financial information services, retail and consumer banking, insurance, money transfer and remittance, blockchain, artificial intelligence and robotics technology, banking infrastructure, wealth management, security and investor protection, institutional investment tools, digital currencies, crowd funding, and investment platforms, and this will required innovative and creative legal solutions as those arises from a novel matter.

Data protection is other practice that we expect to growth, due to the increase of queries of national and foreign clients as a result of the rising level of data protection legislation worldwide, for example by the California Consumer Privacy Act, the Brazilian and Canadian privacy acts and the GDPR.

Even companies that are not directly subject to these regulations want to adapt their policies in many cases to meet the requirements of the regulations, which furthermore share quite a few common elements with the bill of law that aims to adapt the Chilean data protection law.

In the energy sector, the context is settled by the government’s decarbonization target. During last years we have witnessed the development of non conventional renewable industry in Chile and we believe this development will continue to increase. In relation with energy, we have seen that M&A activity is driven in a relevant portion by energy projects. In addition, there is an increase demand related with green financing and a tendency to establish ESG criteria in companies.

Finally, a tax reform bill is currently being discussed in the national Congress, which will cut across all areas of taxation. As we have witnessed in previous tax reforms implemented in the country, this bill and then the law (in case of enactment) will trigger a lot of concerns and questions for companies, specially to understand the effects of the tax reform and the requirements to comply with it. During last years, we have strengthened our tax team adding a partner, Amory Heine, who brings to the team her experience on corporate and personal tax planning, structuring of businesses and companies in Chile and abroad, and audits and litigation with the Internal Revenue Service, before the Tax and Customs Courts, Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court. In addition, during 2022, we have included to the team a Tax Consultant, Sebastián Camus, who is a Public Accountant and Auditor, contributing with his experience on accounting matters; and also two new associates, Francisco Arguello and Francisca Espinoza.

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

There are several changes that we have made lately in the firm that we believe are in the direct benefit of our clients, ranging from financial, operational to strictly legal matters. However, two changes that we would like to highlight is (i) the level of integration among the different offices, to make sure that quality, information and the whole experience for our clients is very high no matter with which office the client is dealing with; and (ii) how we gather information about the client business and strategy, to be sure that we include that knowledge in our advice.

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

Absolutely, because of the Covid19 pandemic, we increased dramatically our remote meetings with clients or potential clients. Nowadays, we still have this type of meetings, but also in person meetings. Remote ones allow us to be efficient in how we work in certain matters, but in person ones are better in cases when definitions about strategy of in-depth discussions are needed.

The major challenges of new technologies and new ways of communicating with clients, is the delivery expected by them when using these kinds of tools. In this regard, we have been working in creating protocols to help the team navigating multiple and simultaneous requirements.

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

There are multiple cases, but one that stands out refers to a company that was involved in a significant financing round. They started the process thinking about just raising money, more concern about the size of the check than in other considerations. Working together, we were able to detect, discuss and solve multiple issues that could have threatened the viability of the company, reaching out an agreement about a structure completely different to the one initially agreed by the parties which, at the end of the day, was more favorable to everybody involved.

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

Absolutely. We see more and more clients looking for a real partner providing legal services with global reach, knowledgeable of the market and top-quality in its services. We provide all of that with a single vision, in a one-stop-shop firm that shares the ambitions of our clients and want to join them in their challenges, with the focus of helping our clients to be successful in their strategies and businesses.