Features

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela – Chanel

An in-house role worth the wait

It’s the role she had long been preparing for, even if it wasn’t always apparent to Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela.

“Some people at a young age know just what they want in life but that wasn’t me,” she says.

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela | Senior Counsel, Latin America | Chanel

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela | Senior Counsel, Latin America | Chanel

Since December 2018, she’s been senior counsel in Latin America for the French-owned luxury fashion house, Chanel, following her three years as a legal specialist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. There’s plenty of opportunity for professional growth and, high among the other in-house advantages, no pressure to rack up billable hours.

Instead, for Lopez, it’s about keeping pace with an evolving business model and being ready to counsel on legal matters for Panama, Mexico and Brazil. Sometimes it’s a personnel issue, other times about fine-tuning a contract or giving the company advice to make sure the business direction complies with the laws.

She means business

One such direction has been the evolution of remote selling. However, this has also triggered several legal and regulatory challenges.

“The laws in our region are similar but not exactly the same,” Lopez tells Vanguard in May from her office in Panama City, Panama. “There are so many laws, and we can’t look at Latin America the same way as we can at Europe and the United States. It’s such a large territory and varies so much in legislation.”

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela | Senior Counsel, Latin America | Chanel

That’s even more reason why she finds it necessary to visit Chanel’s Latin American locations. Compliance is among her responsibilities and not just for good business practices. Personnel laws also differ across borders.

External counsels a must for Chanel, Lopez nurtures relations with law firms in every Latin American country where her employer has a presence. She also leads mandatory training sessions to keep colleagues and herself up to speed.

“It’s very important to understand the business in its entirety,” she says. “If you don’t know how it works and what everybody is doing, it’s very difficult for you to help it grow.”

Bookish from the beginning

Comfortable as she is in her role, Lopez says she gained much by exploring other options before settling on corporate law. Born to a Panamanian-Puerto Rican family in Panama, she recalls being an avid reader for as long as she can remember, and how that drew her to law.

“It had so many possibilities and at first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” she says. “I was leaning toward being an environmental attorney but in law school I became passionate about civil and corporate law.

She earned her law degree and then a master’s from Universidad Catolica Santa Maria La Antigua, and last year enhanced her credentials with a mini-MBA from Boston University. Her career has been a varied one with her first four years doing much business law as an associate with Tapia Linares Y Alfaro, a Panamanian legal heavyweight.

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela | Senior Counsel, Latin America | Chanel

Lopez then spent eight months as a consular officer at the British Embassy in Panama followed by stints at a couple more firms, Borrell, Cano & Pages, and Quijano & Associates. Then came a three-year stretch as a legal specialist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institute based outside the United States.

Its roots dating back to the construction of the Panama Canal, the institute’s facilities annually host around 1,200 visiting scientists for ecological studies which played into Lopez’s interest in environmental law while allowing her to spread her wings. A member of the Institutional Review Board for Human Subject Research, she’d monitor local regulations, advise on the classification of migratory categories, process and translate legal documents. She’d lead workshops on harassment prevention and other sensitive topics, also.

“I truly enjoyed those three years,” she says. “But I do prefer a faster pace which I’m allowed to do—and supposed to do—at Chanel.”

Not all work

She learned of that opportunity through LinkedIn, as did numerous other candidates, and felt a connection from her first interview. When the field was narrowed to three, Lopez correctly sensed she’d be the one.

While her Chanel role is more demanding and faster paced, the company does allow the 36-year-old Lopez the opportunity to enjoy time with her husband and 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. Among their hobbies are catch-and-release fishing, with most of their catches released.

Maria-Gabriela Lopez Varela | Senior Counsel, Latin America | Chanel

But Lopez’s recreation time might be compromised by her quest for lifelong learning. Though fluent in Spanish and English, she’d like to brush up on her French—Chanel, after all, is a French company, albeit headquartered in London. Her legal duties often focusing on Brazil, she’d like to improve her Portuguese, too.

“That’s why Chanel has become my dream job,” Lopez says. “I never get bored and am always learning something new because I have to keep up with the business. If someone had told me years ago that I’d be working for this kind of international company, I don’t think I would have believed it.”

View this feature in the Vanguard Summer III 2022 Edition here.

Published on: June 28, 2022

regions:

categories: ,

Showcase your feature on your website with a custom “As Featured in Vanguard” badge that links directly to your article!

Copy and paste this script into your page coding (ideally right before the closing tag) where you want to display our review banner.

Testimonials

As promised in advance, my feature in Vanguard has increased my visibility within the profession and prompted more than a few people I have not communicated with recently to reconnect. One of the Italian law firms I have used in the past is now in the process of interviewing me for an article on their website and tweeting out the feature story. Activity and the number of people connecting with me on LinkedIn has soared, which is great. The Vanguard writers and editorial staff were great to work with—highly professional and made the effort to make the experience both fun and rewarding (they were also respectful of the time pressures and demands all lawyers face). I was very pleased with the experience and the final outcome. Needless to say, I have been very pleased. All in all working with Vanguard has been a very positive experience which generated good publicity for both Shawcor and myself. My sincere thanks.
– Tim Hutzul, General Counsel, ShawCor Ltd.
I was honored to be the subject of an article. I enjoy reading Vanguard articles and seeing how other attorneys got to their positions and see their jobs. It's also interesting to see how different law firms partner with the subjects of the articles.
– Henry Marquard, in-house counsel, Stanley Consultants Inc.
The piece highlighting my company, Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., came out fabulous. Our company is in the new and used car sales and service industry. Everyone was great to work with and extremely professional. They produced a high-quality product and have provided expert assistance and guidance post-production of the article.
– Wade Poulson, General Counsel, Bob Baker Enterprises Inc.
It was a great honor to be featured in Vanguard Law. Working with every member of the team, from the initial interview with Erin Clark, through production with Victor Martins, writing the article with Taryn Plumb and creating the final content with Dave Gushee, was a true pleasure. Everyone was very professional, enthusiastic and supportive, and their creative approach and positive attitude clearly came through in the final product.
– Kevin C. Rakowski, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance with Radian Group Inc.

LATEST EDITION

Summer IV 2023

READ NOW

GET VANGUARD IN YOUR INBOX.

  • * We’ll never share your email or info with anyone.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.