We have a legal team that is very difficult to beat. So says Heineken Spain’s legal director, Ignacio Mendoza (pictured). After more than six years of developing his professional career at Coca Cola, he joined the brewing company where he leads five professionals who are part of the firm’s in-house legal department. According to the in-house lawyer in dialogue with Iberian Lawyer, the legal department of Heineken Spain is very powerful, very dynamic and is clearly focused on the business and the achievement of the company’s strategy. Proud of his team, Ignacio Mendoza maintains that combining different profiles with different backgrounds within the same group of people is the key to success.
What is your main activity as in-house lawyer for Heineken Spain?
The main activity of an in-house lawyer is legal advice and in my case it is no different, although the functions of an in-house lawyer go much further. In-house lawyers must advise their internal clients so that they have the right tools to carry out their functions, but they must also raise awareness so that it is more of a preventive than a reactive function, they must carry out a risk assessment so that the decisions taken are as controlled as possible, They must adapt their language so that the people in the business understand the implications, align themselves with the function and feel more identified with it and, above all, they must know the business in depth so that the in-house lawyer is an active part in...
The U.S. Justice Department has encouraged prosecutors to dismiss more lawsuits against companies brought by whistleblowers, and the former top deputy for the agency’s civil division expects the tr...