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.