Ritter noted, “Lawyers subsume. They say, “It depends.” But they ask the same questions and come to similar conclusions. With BRYTER, Telefónica identifies these repeatable processes, standardizes the questions asked of sales colleagues and the processes performed, and digitally represents this subsumption so that its legal department can focus on higher value-added work. It is important to recognize that now everything has become virtual. As a telecommunications company, we have access to technologies that support our work: technological tools for contracts, signing documents, court proceedings, virtual hearings. When it comes to legal technology, we do not hesitate, we want to continue to work and provide high standards and we are committed to acting according to the needs of the company. Especially for us, Microsoft Teams has been very helpful. It is so easy to use that this app allowed us to conduct our meetings, review documents and share presentations in a simple way. In addition, we have also introduced a contract software called Webdox. This software helps us keep track of all negotiations and approvals within the company. It helps us identify the areas of law in which we operate. Our work as lawyers has a lot to do with negotiations and meetings.

We keep track of the different areas of the business – these are the customers we serve. We have implemented this software to streamline business operations so that we can deliver contracts and services to different parts of the business faster. We spoke with Marcel Ritter, Telefónica`s General Counsel, about how the company is innovating to provide business partners with digital and on-demand legal advice. Overall, in-house legal teams need to be more business-oriented and present in all business processes. You need to work hand in hand with different areas of the business. You should be aware of legal issues and also understand the practical business implications of legal decisions. In the future, we will have to be more present in the preparatory work, be more agile and flexible. We need to be open to redefining the way we work and the way we approach our internal customers. Cristina Fernández Gómez, General Counsel M&A, Finance & Commercial at Telefónica, joins Exolum as Secretary General and Board of Directors Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on Telefónica`s legal team, I have to say that it was not as shocking as one might think at first glance.

In fact, even before the COVID-19 outbreak, Telefonica had mechanisms in place to balance private and professional life and enable tools such as telecommuting one day a week. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed us to expand these tools and continue our daily activities in a full remote work environment. COVID-19 has forced the General Counsel to reassess how he manages legal teams. Ivan Loynaz, General Counsel for Latin America at 3M, discusses the challenges he has faced in overseeing legal transactions in the healthcare, transportation, and electronics sectors. He joined Telefónica in 2006 as Head of Public Law and then as Head of Legal Affairs for Telecommunications and Information Society, where he is responsible for regulatory and competition issues. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Legal Officer of Telefónica, S.A. and reports to the General Counsel and General Counsel of Telefonica Europe in September 2011. He is currently Chief Policy Officer. As the digital legal toolkit becomes more adopted, Telefónica will continue to identify use cases that save the internal team time and continually improve the standard of service delivery to the rest of the organization. The Corporate Legal team is a group of experienced and collaborative lawyers dedicated to understanding the firm`s needs and providing solid and practical solutions to challenging legal issues.

I am a lawyer with a master`s degree in business law and have worked in the telecommunications industry for over 22 years. During these years, I have witnessed countless changes and transformations in the telecommunications sector and at the same time, I have had the privilege of leading Telefónica`s legal team in Colombia from 2004 to today. Telefónica is a Spanish multinational with offices throughout Latin America in countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Marcel Ritter, General Counsel of Telefónica, has prioritized the adoption of technologies such as BRYTER in his legal function in recent years to facilitate the adoption of changes such as the home office, increased operational efficiency requirements and new ESG requirements. Enrique is responsible for providing technical and strategic advice on legal, regulatory and internal matters in line with the overall business strategy. We are looking for a LEGAL ADVISOR to provide legal support to the U.S. part of the business. LEGAL COUNSEL will provide legal advice to all industries in the United States, including multinational corporations, local accounting and wholesale teams in the United States. The LEGAL ADVISOR is responsible for ensuring that the Company strictly adheres to the legal guidelines and all policies and procedures of the Company. While funding played a role, the legal department also played a major role in providing support and advice during this period.

The finance and legal teams worked together to secure the necessary approvals. We also did a merger. We have faced many challenges during this period. The legal team did a great job. We were very cohesive and worked together, showed a high level of commitment and did a very high quality job. Nowadays, it`s not just about legal knowledge, but also about knowing how to approach people and how to achieve goals as a team. It`s extremely important to become more business-oriented – you need to know your business to serve it. These inefficiencies are compounded by the work-from-home trend, as 99% of Telefónica`s legal team has been out of the office since March 2020, but is still expected to handle billions of transactions.

Today, as General Counsel for mergers and acquisitions, finance and trade, she joins Exolum, the European leader in liquid logistics and one of the largest in the world. BRYTER`s appeal was the power it gives the legal team to leapfrog IT and dive straight into developing solutions to the problems they understand best. As a no-code platform, BRYTER is easy to use and both flexible and powerful. Tools created with the platform can be easily updated and can also cover virtually any legal workflow, even very complex issues. Ritter began building internal alliances and announced the benefits Telefónica would bring if the legal team digitized its operations. Acknowledging that this was a task for the legal department itself, he noted: “IT doesn`t come to tell you that we have a good thing and you can digitize your stuff. Usually, you just know how your business works. Digitalization is more important today than ever. Martha Elena Ruiz, General Counsel at Telefónica Colombia, explains how she and her legal team have risen to the challenges of 2020.

Pablo de Carvajal holds a law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid and a master`s degree in European law from the Free University of Brussels. She began her career at Uría Menéndez in 1998 while completing her studies in Business Administration. She worked for five years in the corporate and finance department of Uría Menéndez until she joined Ferrovial S.A., the holding company of a global construction and services group, in September 2003. During her time at Ferrovial, she rose through the ranks to head the company`s legal department. Enrique Medina Malo is General Counsel and Chief Regulatory Officer of Virgin Media O2. We strongly believe that diverse and inclusive teams become more innovative and achieve better results. Telefonica aims to promote and guarantee a place for everyone as we are: gender, age group, sexual orientation and / or identity, culture, faith, disability or any other personal condition. He has been Secretary General of the Board of Directors of Telefónica Spain since 1 June 2001 and Director of Operators and Regulation since April 2013.

In 2018, Pablo de Carvajal was appointed Secretary General and Director of Public Affairs and Regulation of the Telefónica Group. In order to identify repeatable processes and then digitize them, the Telefónica team set to work to rely on the BRYTER code-free platform. Currently, their completed use cases include: Has a law degree from the Carlos III University of Madrid and joined the legal department of the Spanish government in 1997. As a leading expert in financial law, Cristina Fernández Gómez has led Telefónica`s Legal Financial department since 2012 and became Head of Legal, Financial and Commercial Mergers and Acquisitions in 2016. Target, 630 Main Street, Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, 07601, United States Although paper-based processes represent only a small part of Telefónica`s environmental impact, these processes have been close to hand for digitization initiatives. Before launching BRYTER, Ritter discovered that his team had already processed 8,000 contracts, signed them on paper, and shipped them worldwide without an e-signature tool. In alternative dispute resolution, mediation is always preferred, if this is not possible, we always prefer arbitration to litigation. During this quarantine period, all court proceedings were suspended, but arbitration continued virtually, as did mediation.