1 The Role of General Counsel and Corporate
Counsel in Latin America
By Lillian Moyano Yob
6 The Enactment of the New Brazilian
Competition Law: An Important Shift
By Barbara Rosenberg, Jose Carlos da Matta
Berardo and Camilla Paoletti
10 Latin American Round-up
By Carolyn Boyle
a special supplement to ACC Docket
The Role of General Counsel and
Corporate Counsel in Latin America
By Lillian Moyano Yob ( practiceprofiles@acc.com), ACC
Michael Hartman is senior vice president and general counsel of DIRECTV
Latin America. In his interview with
ACC Leading Practices Profiles, he
spoke about his role as general counsel
and about the role of corporate counsel
working for DIRECTV Latin America.
DIRECTV is the world’s leading provider of satellite television. Through its
DIRECTV Latin America arm, the company provides Spanish- and Portuguese-language pay TV to more than 12 million
customers in Latin America and the
Caribbean. DIRECTV LA reports annual
revenues in excess of US $5 billion1 and
operates through standalone, fully staffed
subsidiaries in each country. DIRECTV
Latin America oversees each subsidiary
and serves as the regional manager for
its operations in Brazil, Argentina, Chile,
Colombia, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru,
Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Uruguay. DIRECTV LA owns 41 percent of its Mexican and Central American subsidiary, the
results of which are not consolidated in
DIRECTV’s financial results.
Working as an
international team
The DIRECTV Latin America central
legal office operates out of the company’s headquarters in New York City.
As general counsel, Hartman reports
directly to the president of DIRECTV
Latin America and on a “dotted line”
basis to the general counsel of DIRECTV. Hartman is responsible for
both legal and government affairs for
DIRECTV Latin America. The company’s legal operations are structured
to grant in-house counsel working at
DIRECTV LA subsidiaries discretion
to manage independently, on a day-to-day basis, the legal affairs of those
subsidiaries. The company’s regional
in-house counsel manage basic contracts, consumer litigation, labor issues
and regulatory matters that arise routinely. Government affairs professionals manage the day-to-day regulatory
functions of their subsidiaries.
DIRECTV Latin America’s attorneys
in the New York City headquarters
SAVE THE DATE
July/August 2013
Latin American Briefings
Drafts due by April 25th