Oscar Núñez, Deputy General Counsel & Director of LATAM Markets, TECfusions, Inc., discusses why effective legal leadership requires more than solving today’s problems – combining commercial understanding, adaptability and long-term judgement to build solutions that remain defensible years down the line.
What has been the most defining moment of your career as an in-house counsel so far?
The most defining moment in my career was when we moved from Panama to the United States. It didn’t start as a career move, but how it organically evolved tested not just my legal knowledge, but my resilience, determination, and persistence.
The attorney in me cannot be separated from who I am, both made the journey together.
Growing into a legal environment different from the one I was used to in LATAM was, at times, a real friction point, and only flexibility of mind and the ability to adapt allowed me to overcome it.
In what ways do you see the role of the GC changing over the next 5–10 years?
The GC role is moving from gatekeeper to solutions architect. That shift is actually what pushed me to write Counsel + Machine, a seven-part series I put together on AI governance for in-house counsel – because the volume of information available to us now is staggering, and the real skill isn’t accessing it, it’s knowing what to trust.
Certainty, double-checking, and a thorough understanding of the business are what let us turn that counsel-enhancement into something that actually serves the people we represent, rather than just moving faster toward the wrong answer.
How do you foster innovation and agility within your legal team?
I try to create space for my team to think like businesspeople first – understanding the commercial reality before we even get to structuring is always the goal.
I’m not a litigator; that’s what outside counsel is for. My job is to carry the vision, set the strategy, and architect the solution that gets the business where it needs to go.
In a sector moving as fast as hyperscale and AI infrastructure, agility comes from trusting that instinct enough to move quickly, then refining as we go.
What qualities do you believe distinguish truly impactful GCs from good ones?
What separates a good GC from an impactful one, to me, is the defensibility of the work over time.
A contract with a ten-year lifecycle has to be correct today and still correct in ten years – understanding that horizon, and building with it in mind rather than just solving what’s in front of you, is what actually moves the needle. That’s the kind of impact that outlasts any single deal.
How do you balance the pressures of your role with personal wellbeing and resilience?
This one’s close to me.
Training for an Ironman is gruelling in a way that’s hard to describe until you’ve lived it – the swim beats you up, the bike tests your patience, and by the run your legs are negotiating with your mind. What it teaches you isn’t just how to finish; it’s how to adjust mid-race when the plan falls apart, because it always does.
I’ve found the same muscle gets used in a legal career. The ability to shift and adapt doesn’t just carry you to the goal – it sharpens your body, your mind, and honestly your soul, so you can carry the weight of the decisions a GC makes, day after day, without it wearing you down.
If you could change one perception about the in-house legal profession, what would it be?
It would be the idea that the more you talk, the better attorney you are.
A GC’s words carry real weight – they can shift the odds at the negotiating table toward fairness, balance, and justice – which is exactly why they shouldn’t be spent carelessly.
The best GCs I know listen more than they speak, and it’s in digesting what’s actually being said, properly, that the right solution shows up at the critical moment. I’d like the profession to measure us more by that instinct than by how much airtime we take up in the room.
