Our partner Ariela Agosin was selected as one of the six experts who will serve on the panel evaluating Chile’s top corporate legal teams.
Forbes Chile is taking another step forward in launching its first recognition program for the country’s corporate legal departments. A group of six prominent figures from the legal, business, and trade association sectors accepted the magazine’s invitation to join the panel of experts that will help determine the “Who’s Who” list of Legal Departments in Chile, an initiative launched in partnership with the consulting firm Audentia.
The committee brings together diverse and complementary backgrounds: top-tier litigators, intellectual property specialists, leading experts in corporate affairs and compliance, and leaders from the business and trade association sectors.
“Forbes Chile appreciates the commitment of this distinguished panel. Their careers reflect exactly what we seek to highlight through this list. They are all professionals who make an indisputable contribution to building a society that is at once more just, competitive, and inclusive. They will provide us with the necessary standards to understand business law as a driver of trust and development,” states Claudia Guzmán, editorial director.
Panel Members
A law graduate of the University of Chile with a summa cum laude Master of Laws from St. Thomas University (Florida), she is a partner at az, where she leads the litigation group. Her practice encompasses civil, commercial, and regulatory litigation, arbitration, antitrust, advertising law, and intellectual property. She was named one of the top 25 litigators in Latin America by Benchmark Litigation and recognized as “Lawyer of the Year in Intellectual Property” by Best Lawyers. She has championed gender equality in the legal industry, spearheading her firm’s first diversity and inclusion policy in 2019.
What the List Entails
“Who’s Who” in Legal Departments in Chile is the first independent editorial recognition that identifies and highlights the country’s top corporate legal teams, with the General Counsel or legal director as the central figure. Unlike other international awards focused on private practice, this first edition aims to make a meaningful contribution by focusing on the legal team operating from within the company. All of this takes place within the context of a particularly demanding regulatory cycle for Chile—the Economic Crimes Act, the new Data Protection Act, the Karin Act, the 40-hour workweek, and the CMF’s corporate governance guidelines, among others.
The results will be published in a special edition of Forbes Chile, in both print and digital formats, and will be celebrated at an awards ceremony. The country’s top 50 legal teams will be recognized, organized by economic sector—Finance, Energy, Mining, Retail, Technology, and Healthcare, among others—in addition to cross-sector awards such as Legal Team of the Year and Emerging Legal Leadership.
The Criteria to Be Evaluated
Nominations will be evaluated by the editorial teams of Forbes Chile and Audentia, together with a committee of experts. The evaluation will be weighted based on three main criteria:
- Leadership and structure of the legal department: the team’s composition and capacity—number of attorneys and other professionals—its diversity, and the profile of the executive in charge.
- Management and contribution to the business: key achievements, regulatory milestones, or significant legal matters handled during the period, and the team’s contribution to the design or strengthening of the company’s internal policies.
- Visibility and engagement with the community: the legal department’s public presence, its participation in forums, seminars, and academic activities, and its community engagement or sustainability initiatives.
Corporate legal departments based in Chile or leading regional operations from the country, with teams of at least two people, are eligible to participate. Law firms, external legal consulting firms, and independently practicing attorneys are not eligible to apply.
Applications close at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 7.
All information provided is strictly confidential and for the exclusive use of the editorial teams at Forbes Chile and Audentia.
Participation is free of charge. Forbes Chile does not accept payment to appear in its editorial lists.
Meet all the panel members in the full article here.
Source: Forbes Chile, September 1.
