Client View
‘Law firms must empathise with our needs and act as
our allies’
Total Systems Services head of legal Sergio López Fernández says it is vital that external legal services
providers perform tasks in the timeframe set by the company
The process used by Total System
Services (TSYS) – a data processing
and print and digital services provider
– to select external law firms is “very
simple,” claims Sergio López Fernández,
the company’s head of legal. “First
we hold a personal interview in my
offices, in which the law firms make a
presentation about their services, and
then we visit the law firms’ offices and
we request references from current
clients, and we evaluate the cost of
their services,” he explains. “This does
not mean we choose the lawyers that
provide the cheapest services, as we also
make an evaluation of their experience
and their references.”
A firm’s prestige is also an important
factor in the decision, according to
López Fernandez. “Above all, law firms
partners must be affiliated to one of the
three most important bar associations in
Mexico, which are the Barra Mexicana
Colegio de Abogados, the Asociación
Nacional de Abogados de Empresa,
and the Ilustre y Nacional Colegio de
Abogados de México.” López Fernandez
says TSYS, which is based in Toluca,
the capital city of Mexico state, uses
external law firms for highly specialised
cases concerning tax law, intellectual
property and financial law. He adds
that the company has a “magnificent
business relationship” with Mexico
City-based law firm Ponce Kuri, which,
he says, is innovative and well-versed in
intellectual property and data protection
issues.
‘Practical and useful’
One of the biggest challenges TSYS
has faced involved ensuring that the
company’s employees were, twice
each year, given training related to the
latest developments in data protection.
“When I began working at TSYS I asked
the external law firm that counseled
us on data protection, Ponce Kuri, to
carry out due diligence and create a
profile of how we were doing in terms
of our internal implementation of
policies and procedures regarding data
protection,” López Fernandez explains.
“They informed me that, beyond the
implementation of external and internal
policies, our personnel also had to be
trained in data protection half-yearly –
that was a significant challenge for our
www.thelatinamericanlawyer.com
in-house legal team, because we had to
train 600 employees.” López Fernandez
continues: “Almost five years later,
we now give two training courses to
almost 600 employees, which has been
a professional and academic challenge
because it implied much preparation
as the majority of our employees are
not lawyers – I had to ensure that the
message I was communicating was
practical and useful for them.”
How to add value
López Fernández says that the main
advantage of using an external law
firm is that it “accelerates specialised
issues, putting them in the hands of
professionals, which allows them to
dedicate their full time to studying the
issues at hand”. He adds that there
are many other advantages in using
external firms and hiring lawyers with
significant expertise in particular fields.
“External law firms add value with
their specialised services, and their
understanding of our business model.”
However, according to López
Fernández, one of the most important
consideration for external law firms is
ensuring that they “empathise with our
needs, and that they have the response
time that we demand – beyond being
our external lawyers, we must see them
as legal allies”. He adds that one of the
factors that would deter TSYS from
hiring a particular firm would be one of
the partners having a poor reputation.
With regard to the issue of using a
law firm in a different jurisdiction,
López Fernández says the company
always seeks to use firms that are
recommended by one of the law firms
TSYS already uses.
The in-house team’s day-to-day work
generally concerns matters related to
tax, intellectual property and financial
law, says López Fernández. In terms of
new legislation affecting everyday work,
he says that, as many of the company’s
suppliers are in the US, his team needs
to be more and more specialised in the
interpretation and application of US
legislation. López Fernández adds: “The
business world is changing constantly
and, as an in-house lawyer, I seek
immediate legal answers that allow the
company that I represent to continue to
do business.”
Sergio López Fernández
“
External law firms
add value with their
specialised services, and
their understanding of our
business model
”
Sergio López Fernández
is head of legal at
Total System Services
December 2018 • THE LATIN AMERICAN LAWYER • 21