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Felipe Jaramillo is negotiating for his company as commercial counsel at Stripe. The University of Florida law school graduate started as an associate at Moore & Company, P.A. before moving to corporate counsel at Anixter for a year. He found his way to Ingram Micro, where he moved up the ladder until he landed at manager and senior legal counsel in Barcelona, Spain. In 2022, he started at Stripe.
What is one of the biggest misconceptions about being an attorney or the legal function itself?
I believe the biggest misconception about the legal function, especially in the world of in-house, is that we slow down the pace of the business. The real motivation behind our role as attorneys is to anticipate future risks. The hard thing about seeing the real value in our work from the outside is that many of our contributions, when successful, will actually make things work smoothly. Therefore, when looking at an attorney’s work it is very important to consider that the legal work done upfront will actually save you a lot in the long run. With good legal counsel, a business will accelerate its pace by making sure it optimizes its risk profile.
What’s a piece of unconventional advice you’ve received that was helpful?
My father has always told me that everyone is a salesman in some regard, and that, as such, we should focus on working with others to make our sales. Growing up, this did not totally make sense to me since it seemed that many jobs did not require “selling” or “negotiating.” But [now having] experience with a multitude of industries and people, I can see how it applies. For example, within legal departments, we are constantly selling our arguments during negotiations.
This piece of advice has been extremely useful in my career because in my collaboration with sales teams I can always share this advice so that they can appreciate that I am also aware of the importance of salesmanship, and more importantly, I am very aware that good relationships will be key in making a “contract” sale.
What song or album motivates you the most?
“Galore” by The Cure.
Find Felipe Jaramillo on LinkedIn.
