Lawyer Octopus

Recently, Netflix released the South African film My Octopus Teacher, produced by Craig Foster and winner of the 2021 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. But what does this have to do with legal solutions? Understand.

My Octopus Teacher portrays the producer’s learning as he daily follows the life of an octopus (a female octopus, in fact) over the course of a year.

In the film, he demonstrates the octopus’s decentralized intelligence spread across its thousands of sensors, its intuitive capacity to perceive the arrival of danger in advance, its adaptability to the environment to protect itself from predators, and its self-sacrifice for the benefit of the coming generations.

It may seem like a joke, but I have always described my work as a lawyer using the metaphor of an octopus. Watching the film, this association became even clearer.

Decentralized intelligence

When we take on a new client, or are faced with a new situation, our first move is to dive into each area of the company, like the tentacles of an octopus that have more than 1.5 thousand sensors acting independently in the complete monitoring of the environment in which it is inserted.

It is in this way that we manage to take a photograph of the company exactly as it is at this initial moment, in its legal, commercial, management, and economic aspects.

This panorama is part of the work of a strategic legal department and allows for a better understanding of problems and opportunities.

Mapping of dangers

This movement of deeply understanding the areas simultaneously and directly, together with the initial photograph, contributes to our quickly identifying legal and business risks.

Just as the octopus foresees dangers and adopts prevention measures, this mapping allows a strategic plan to be developed with legal solutions to be analyzed and implemented together with the client.

Adaptability to the environment and legal solutions

Just as the octopus has a capacity to adapt to the environment, at Lassori, we too insert ourselves into the culture and reality of each client. For this, in addition to dedication to legal study, we are concerned with expanding our knowledge in Economics, Administration, and Business.

This continuous formation beyond Law broadens our vision as strategic lawyers and allows us to better understand the problems and needs of our clients. Thus, we are able to develop more precise legal solutions.

Sustainability for coming generations

Here it is worth emphasizing that we work for the coming generations just like the octopus, but without self-sacrifice. On the contrary. Our work consists of developing the succession planning of companies to ensure that the succession is carried out without ruptures of business or management.

At first glance, it may seem nonsense to compare a lawyer with an octopus, but if you have reached this point in your reading, you have been able to perceive that it makes complete sense. This is a way of explaining, in an uncomplicated manner, the work of the strategic legal department, the great global trend in the field in recent years.

Juliana Assolari – lawyer specialized in Business Law, Tax Planning, Succession, and Family Office. She also works as a consultant for the creation of Advisory and Administrative Boards for family businesses. She is a partner at Lassori Advogados.