The Lain American Lawyer: March 2018 Latam_March 2018 | Page 18

Client View
“Law firms should have a close collaborative approach, provide
advice in a simple way, and be predictable on costs”
Law firms using technology to facilitate reporting and billing, as well as those striving for ongoing
collaborative working practices keep their clients happy
Daniel Bulnes
“
Working across such
different geographies is not
without challenges.
”
Daniel Bulnes is
general counsel South
America at Atos
It is highly valuable that law firms
work closely with in-house lawyers
and offer alternative fee arrangements,
which can help with predicting costs and
planning budgets, says Daniel Bulnes,
general counsel South America at Atos.
Atos is a digital transformation
multinational listed on the Euronext
Paris market. It employs 100,000 staff in
72 countries and generates around €13
billion in yearly revenue.
Bulnes joined Atos in 2007 as senior
legal counsel in Spain and relocated
to Latin America in 2011. He is now
based in Sao Paulo at the company’s
regional headquarters, and runs a legal
department covering Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and
Uruguay.
Working across such different
geographies is not without challenges,
admits Bulnes, pointing out the divergent
regulatory framework governing business
in each country. These challenges are
tremendous opportunities for the in-house
legal team, he adds, to provide support
for the business, to develop cross-border
skills at a professional level, and, above
all, to show its value to the company.
Learning the lessons
Managing complex matters in-house,
including litigation is also an opportunity
to learn lessons which are valuable for
the business down the line, he says. A
case in point is learning the value of third
party funding in litigation, which helps
assess how a case could be brought to a
successful conclusion.
In addition, Bulnes says that there is
a clear trend for in-house departments
growing closer to the business and
showing they generate more value in a
context of downward cost pressure.
Meanwhile, with many Latin American
countries introducing anti-corruption
measures, businesses have been forced
to adapt their compliance policies to
meet the new local requirements as
well as refining and improving internal
regulations, Bulnes says.
Another more recent trend generating
work and movement in the Latin
American legal market is the push from
companies to adapt to the new EU General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
Bulnes notes. Because of the extraterritorial
scope of the GDPR, this is an opportunity
16 • THE LATIN AMERICAN LAWYER • March 2018
for companies to be ready and compliant
as well as increasing protection in countries
which have different maturity for handling
personal data.
Atos has a formal legal panel and
tends to externalise more work where the
company has no lawyers on the ground,
says Bulnes. It is regularly reviewed and
legal departments around the company
have an input in the selection process.
The panel is comprehensive, the selection
criteria includes high quality of services,
broad presence in the countries where
the company operates, intensive use of
legal technology as well as a collaborative
approach.
While the law firm panel is broad,
it is not exclusive and the in-house
counsel can call upon external law firms
which have a particular niche expertise.
Additionally, in countries where the
company does not have lawyers, the
in-house counsel can select firms to
handle day to day corporate matters at a
competitive rate. It is not essential that a
law firm has worked with the company
previously to receive more instructions,
Bulnes explains, adding that that he is
regularly exposed to the work of various
law firms in any given market because
of Atos´ organic growth. Expanding
through acquisitions brings new lines of
business and is an opportunity for the
team to learn and get acquainted with
more firms, he says.
A collaborative approach from the
external lawyer is critical, Bulnes explains,
particularly when there are issues where
the in-house counsel knows the points of
risk and only needs a quick check from the
local outside lawyer, and time is normally
of the essence.
At Atos, digital transformation is part of
the DNA so the use of technology by a law
firm to facilitate billing, reporting and other
tasks is important, he says. The department
makes use of existing technologies
automating processes so its lawyers can
focus on higher value work. This adds to
internal efficiencies and takes the team
higher up in the value chain, he adds.
Lastly, Bulnes prefers to work with
firms under alternative fee arrangements
which offer predictability and efficiency
and make it easier to budget and design
a business plan. He is pleased to see
more law firms in the region taking this
approach.
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