A day in the life of… Interview with Emilio Puig, Head of Legal Iberia & Croatia at Uber

Today we take a closer look at Emilio Puig, Head of Legal, Iberia & Croatia at Uber

In our section ‘A day in the life of…’, it is the turn of Emilio Puig, Head of Legal, Iberia & Croatia at Uber.

Today we share his answers in a new installment of ‘A day in the life of…’.

What is the first thing you do when you start your working day?

Every morning, the first thing I do is check my calendar for that day and the rest of the week. I review the agendas of the topics to be discussed in the meetings, and I prepare the feedback I have to give. I also organise my priorities according to their urgency and importance, and distribute the tasks with my team.

It is important to set aside about thirty minutes or an hour at the beginning of the day to get organised. To do this, at Uber for example, we avoid setting meetings before 10:00 am.

On the other hand, in recent years I have also spent some of my mornings studying (most recently preparing for the California Bar exam). For a regional position in a large multinational it is very useful to keep up to date, constantly learning, and curious about what is happening and how it is regulated in other jurisdictions. This way you can compare and give better advice in your own countries. But it can also bring you new opportunities for personal and professional growth beyond your borders.

What roles do Marketing and Communication play in your daily life?

In this digital age, having a presence in the media and networks is essential for building a good professional reputation. Especially for law firms and companies, as it greatly facilitates the creation of relationships between both.

The development of attractive content, as well as a communication strategy that demonstrates the experience and leadership of lawyers in a given current matter or area of specialisation, is key. The publication of newsletters, the organisation and participation in events to debate among specialists in a specific field, the creation of posts on topics of interest on which they are working, updates on cases they have won, etc., are some examples that can help to build a good personal or firm brand in the legal industry.

However, there is one particular issue I would like to highlight. Lately there has been a rapid proliferation of lawyer rankings and awards, making it difficult for law firms to trust the reliability of some of them.

Good quality rankings are characterised by transparent methodologies, rigorous evaluation processes by reputable independent professionals and a focus on relevant criteria such as complex project management, innovation, experience and client satisfaction. In contrast, low-quality rankings lack this transparency, are based on subjective self-interested opinions or prioritise factors that are not indicative of true expertise.

For corporate law firms, good quality rankings offer many advantages. Fundamentally, they make it easier to recruit the best lawyers for particular matters and provide valuable information on industry trends. But for them to be a useful tool, it is crucial that in-house lawyers know how to distinguish which rankings are reliable and which are not.

What is the biggest challenge of your current position?

The Internet has changed everything. Looking back, the world of just ten years ago bears little resemblance to the world of today. Everything has changed radically, from our consumer habits, to the way we interact with others, to the way we travel.

All of us in this ‘ecosystem’ have to assume that there is no turning back, and that we have to adapt to new realities.

Legislators and traditional sectors often struggle to keep pace with innovation, leading to regulations that can be inefficient, disproportionate and put at risk the growth and competitiveness of our countries vis-à-vis other markets. We have experienced this particularly in our sector, where courts at national and European level are increasingly tending to recognise these regulatory ‘anomalies’.

In the face of these challenges, businesses (particularly in the technology sector) are making it a priority to advocate for balanced regulation that not only protects people, but also encourages innovation while ensuring competition between players on a level playing field. This requires proactive engagement with policy makers, emphasising the need for agile and adaptable legal frameworks that support, rather than impede, technological advances.

In this context, it is also more necessary than ever for lawyers to have a clear litigation strategy: when necessary, defending the interests of our companies in court, and challenging regulations that are overly burdensome and stifle innovation.

Finally, at the management level of the legal department, my most important priority is the dedication and contribution to the development of my team. I try to offer them guidance and support in their day-to-day work, as well as to achieve the objectives set by the firm, but also those that they themselves want to achieve. I put a lot of emphasis on working on their soft skills (effective communication, leadership, conflict resolution, etc.) because these are the tools that will help them work well with the rest of the team. I also ask them to make an effort to take advantage of networking and learning opportunities with other colleagues, inside and outside their countries, and with law firms and other stakeholders, because all this can open new doors for them in the future. And finally, I try to learn a lot from them and take advantage of the skills and knowledge they bring that I do not have.

What is your view of the evolving role of the in-house lawyer in a large company?

The role of in-house counsel is constantly evolving, so we must be proactive and adaptable to keep pace with a process of permanent transformation.

Lawyers seem to come from a ‘conservative’ background, and we tend to be overly idealistic in our views at times. So, to anyone who wants to enter the in-house world, I would say to abandon such maximalism and get used to navigating the wide ‘grey’ space between black and white.

We need to be able to identify and mitigate legal risks, while providing objective but also strategic and realistic advice to our businesses so that they can grow in a sustainable manner.

Effective communication is essential. I always tell my team that 80% of their job is to translate the sometimes incomprehensible implications of the law into ‘normal’ people’s language. If you are not able to work effectively with other departments in your firm, if you can’t get them to understand what you are saying and you don’t give them solutions that they can reasonably implement, you are on the wrong track.

From the in-house legal department, what criteria do you follow for the selection of an external lawyer?

Experience, potential and creativity. Professionals who can face the great challenges ahead, but who have demonstrated integrity, grit and openness throughout their careers. Doing business the right way, with responsibility, enthusiasm, courage and honesty. Reliable partners, in short.

What are the legal issues that you consider most relevant or of greatest interest to your sector at the moment?

On the one hand, the achievement of a regulatory framework that is more rational, proportionate and pro-competitive in the field of mobility. This would allow the different means of transport that we intermediate in this sector to coexist and operate under equal conditions.

And on the other hand, the creation of rules that protect people who rely on platforms to generate income, while maintaining the independence they prefer.

How has technology transformed the legal sector since your professional life began?

For me, the clear example of a technological tool that is changing the way we work are tools based on artificial intelligence.

AI is being used to automate tasks, review documents, search for applicable doctrine and regulations, and in due diligence processes. This is allowing us to focus on more productive, strategic and ‘human’ tasks. For example, there are already some fairly reliable AI programs that can quickly identify the case law applicable to a particular case or point out risks in contracts.

We are becoming increasingly digitised, with firms using cloud-based platforms to exchange documents with clients, software that allows them to negotiate and manage the entire life of a contract from inception to termination, and so on.

This technology will allow us to be more effective, reduce the time it takes to provide feedback to our businesses and save costs.

We should not be afraid of it, but learn to use it responsibly. We have to get used to the fact that AI will be just another working companion in our daily lives.

What is the biggest learning you have taken away from your current profession and throughout your professional career?

It doesn’t matter where you work as a lawyer, or whether you think your day-to-day functions have little or a lot of impact. However small or big you think it is, as long as you do it with the intention of helping others and contributing to making things better, it is worthwhile.

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you in the office and/or in the profession?

More than strange, I would say exciting. In my previous company, one of the responsibilities I had was to advise the department that manages the company’s fleet of private aircraft. I was so passionate about it that on some occasions, test flights, etc., they let me fly with them. And I remember it with great enthusiasm, because my vocation has always been between being a lawyer and a pilot.

Which areas of the legal sector do you think need the biggest boost in the next five years?

Undoubtedly, the Justice Administration. It has to modernise, digitise much more and become considerably more agile in order to be fairer. I would ask them to imitate what many law firms and companies are already starting to do.

On the other hand, I believe that in the legal sector, all of us in general, need to get better at diversity and inclusion. We need to be more inclusive to better reflect the society we serve. Companies and firms need to commit to implementing diversity initiatives, mentoring programmes and encouraging under-represented groups to have a voice and a vote in decision-making processes. And above all, we must fight against unconscious bias in the recruitment and promotion processes of our employees.