An interview with Diogo Liberal, Head of Legal and Compliance at Banco Primus in Portugal.
How would you describe the state of the GC Community in your region? How has it changed since you first moved in-house?
The state of GC community is very healthy. In the last 10 years, in-house lawyers have established themselves as focal points for legal matters within companies and a trusted part of the corporate eco-system. Also relevant is to take into account the number of companies that have progressively internalised legal activities as part of their organic growth. An important change can be illustrated as board members enjoy having in-house teams close to tackle problems and to speak with on a day to day basis. In addition, GC’s are nowadays not only legal professionals, but more importantly managers of teams that resort to technological tools and external counsel, as well as establish priorities to allocate legal resources that must be aligned with a company’s goals.
Why is expanding your network important to you? What kinds of connections or discussions would be most valuable to you?
Networking is very important as it allows us to collect the best experiences from our colleagues allowing GC’s to anticipate legal issues within a community that speaks the same language and shares common problems or faces similar limitations. Networking or discussions also allow us to create business opportunities or to foster possibilities for cross selling products that initially may not seem connected.
What do you want to achieve by collaborating with other GCs and senior in-house lawyers? Are there specific topics, challenges, or experiences you’d like to share or learn more about?
Sharing is good because it creates bridges for solving issues that may arise between your company and others, but also to promote business opportunities. I think the most relevant experiences to learn relate to either technological solutions that were implemented with success or business cases in which sound management allowed the improvements to be made in the effectiveness of legal services.
