An interview with Daniel Casal, General Counsel at Petrobras Operaciones S.A. in Argentina.
What are the biggest external forces or trends currently shaping your role as General Counsel, and how are you responding to them?
Being in a regulated business – oil and gas, energy – the country’s policies and regulations and the world environment are in constant change. Accordingly, legal advice and legal products are complemented with what may happen, on a balance of probabilities, and how to protect the company and respond to those changing rules.
How are you balancing the increasing demands of legal risk management with the expectation to drive business value and strategic insight?
I am always trying to include an analysis of possible outcomes, their probabilities, and alternative responses should any of them happen.
What’s one lesson or insight from your in-house journey that you wish you’d known earlier and would share with a fellow GC today?
Being an in-house counsel is an ongoing business. The environment changes all the time, the company’s internal business may change every day, go back and forward, people may change their opinions, and internal counsel may also change its opinions. Don´t be afraid to rectify and correct, accept mistakes and amend them, talk clearly and always go right to the point. Your internal clients need to trust you, and to know they can rely on you. Always be a true person. Integrity and ethics are a must. And always bear in mind you are dealing with people. Be kind and empathetic.