IV Congress of Corporate Law | The Institute  

During March 26th, 27th and 28th, the IV Congress of Corporate Law, organized by El Instituto (Ecuador), was held in remote format via ZOOM.

This event was attended by speakers from Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Spain, who are recognized academic references and leaders in the practice of corporate law in Latin America.

Due to the quality of its contents, and the excellence and reputation of its speakers, the Congress has received the academic endorsement of the School of Jurisprudence of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador).

The resulting dynamics of its 3 full days included a variety of panels, master classes and round tables, covering the following topics:

- Day 1: Mergers & Acquisitions in Multinationals, Regulatory Compliance in Multinational Companies, Innovation and Technology in Legal Management, and, Shareholder Conflicts;

- Day 2: Abusive shareholder agreements, How to protect foreign investment, Abuse in the approval of a corporate restructuring plan, Directors’ rights and obligations, Taxation of large corporate groups, and, Investment risks: direct and indirect expropriation;

- Day 3: Strategic participation in the business, Contracts, operations and reforms: perspectives of Business Law, Board of Directors and Corporate Governance, Digitalization in the corporate world, Corporate Sustainability, and a closing table, which focused on the analysis of the "Resolution of Corporate Conflicts in Latin America".

LATIN COUNSEL has participated as Media Sponsor of this academic event, and in addition, its correspondent in Argentina, the corporate lawyer and international academic specialized in the negotiation and drafting of M&A contracts, Rodolfo G. Papa, has participated as one of its speakers.

In this regard, Rodolfo shared with us the following reflections on the IV Corporate Law Congress:

"It has truly been a very pleasant experience, and of course, a challenge, to have participated as a speaker in this new edition of the Corporate Law Congress, organized by El Instituto, representing Latin Counsel. This event, whose first edition took place in 2022, has become a "classic" for the practice of corporate law in Latin America, essentially due to the topicality and sophistication of the topics addressed. Each year, the Congress exhibits a continuous and sustained improvement, and this has materialized during this fourth edition, and undoubtedly -from my point of view-, for those of us who have had the opportunity to follow all of its sessions, it has served, in reality, as a source of learning and permanent training. In this edition, as a speaker, I shared the opening panel, together with distinguished colleagues from Colombia and Ecuador, having analyzed different "key" issues in the structuring of M&A operations, legal and regulatory issues related to the conclusion of transactions with Latin American targets, and the impact generated by the (possible) application of the Antitrust Law (with special emphasis on the treatment of the prevailing regulations in Ecuador and Colombia, respectively)."

Rodolfo’s presentation was entitled: The role of Legal Management in the evaluation of legal and regulatory risks in M&A processes.

Its conclusions were the following:

- The role of the Legal Management in M&A processes, from the "prism" of the Latin American practice, faces a process of transformation and reinvention, adopting (at present) a position of leadership, proactivity and accompaniment to the members of the different internal areas of the company, responsible for its negotiation and structuring.

- In the evaluation and identification of its "macro" legal and regulatory risks, the Legal Management should consider the following: the traditional ones in M&A transactions (included in the "check-lists"); those resulting from the "post-pandemic"; those of regulatory source; those consequences and/or "anti-competitive" conducts (and in addition, if the projected transaction would qualify as an "economic concentration event", subject to ex ante approval under the applicable "local legislation"), a "compliance due diligence" (to avoid and/or anticipate the transfer of liabilities for compliance breaches) and, the risks inherent to the core business operated by the target company.

In conclusion, as a participant during its 3 days, I can affirm that the Congress has been a success, and we are obviously looking forward to its next edition scheduled for 2026...".
On the other hand, the celebration of this IV edition of the Corporate Law Congress has had an exceptional repercussion for corporate law in Ecuador, since its launching coincided with the launching event of the Ecuador Chapter of the Latin American Association of Legal Managers GL LATAM, which brings together in-house lawyers of companies doing business in that jurisdiction.

Precisely, such launching event, which took place the day before the beginning of the IV Congress of Corporate Law, has formalized a "strategic alliance" between the Ecuador Chapter of the Latin American Association of Legal Managers, and the Institute, respectively, and will surely result in the development of new training and professional formation activities for the benefit of its legal community, especially focused on business advice.

You can access the full text of the last update of the thematic agenda of contents and exhibitors of the IV Congress of Corporate Law through this link.