Association of Corporate Counsel Expands Membership to Argentina

Thomas Huddleston Jr.

Corporate Counsel

11-29-2010

The Association of Corporate Counsel is making inroads into Latin America, as it announces its first-ever chapter in that region.

The association -- which can claim members from the in-house legal community in 75 countries -- now has an Argentina Chapter as of the Nov. 15 announcement. The chapter will be based in Buenos Aires and headed by Esteban Mazzucco, international senior corporate counsel of The Clorox International Company.

In a statement released by ACC, Mazzucco cited the importance of the association's programs and overall presence in a region with "unique legal challenges" for counsel. Mazzucco, who has been with Clorox for seven years, became president of the chapter in October and has already begun planning programming for Argentina's in-house community.

"We have created a variable loss agenda to really tackle what are the main topics ... to discuss within the in-house community in Latin America," he told CorpCounsel.com.

Two of the chapter's biggest discussion topics will revolve around regulation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and advice on managing litigation -- Mazzucco called Latin America "a very litigious region." The chapter will need to prepare for the wide variety of different issues that in-house counsel face in a region "with all different countries and different political and socioeconomic frameworks" impacting the way multinational companies do business.

Some of the chapter's first meetings will cover antitrust regulations and legal challenges that are specific to counsel in Argentina, Mazzucco said. Other future topics include data privacy matters, developing relationships with outside counsel, and talent retention.

"The Argentina Chapter constitutes a significant step by ACC to serve the Latin American and multinational in-house legal community," ACC President Frederick J. Krebs said in a statement.