Today, Sunday (13.09.2026), broke bright and sunny here in Madrid. From early on, the streets of the central district of the Spanish capital were packed with people, most of them eagerly waiting to follow their Spanish drivers, Fernando Alonso among them, in the Formula 1 Grand Prix due to take place that very afternoon.
I admit that, ever since Rubens Barrichello stopped competing, my interest in Formula 1 has dropped to almost nothing. Yet in the middle of such a crowd spreading along one of Madrid’s main shopping streets — the Gran Vía — I witnessed the same situation in two large, internationally known stores: people being arrested in the act by police officers, on suspicion of shoplifting.
I confess I did not expect to see such things around here. But those episodes reminded me of situations that, as a lawyer devoted to defending companies, I frequently find myself managing — crises very similar to the ones I have just described.
Yes, every business owner will, at some point, face similar situations, whether with their staff and associates, with their clients, or even with their suppliers. A doctor or dentist at a clinic who diverts patients or charges for extra procedures directly through their own card machines, so that the revenue is never recorded. A client who claims to have had an accident on the premises, with no real record that it ever happened. Or, worse, a supplier who bribes the purchasing manager into steering orders towards more expensive products or services, in exchange for under-the-table commissions.
Human creativity is broad, and it goes a long way in the wrong direction.
In this increasingly complex context, with legal layers and facets that are ever more intertwined, I place growing value on the multidisciplinary capacity of the professionals who work in the business world. Our view cannot be confined to a single subject or specialism. I am not condemning lawyers who specialise in particular areas — but the law firm able to support a client with a team that has a multidisciplinary outlook is undoubtedly a step ahead, even in the age of AI.
Building tailored solutions across the most varied areas of law, aimed at reducing and mitigating risk, is the most productive thing available to the business owner who looks at the medium and long term and wants to avoid crises.
For example, putting all of a company’s legal relationships in writing — covering labour and consumer matters, and dealings with distributors, commercial representatives, agents and suppliers — through well-drafted, individually tailored contracts can prevent disputes and so reduce losses.
Drawing up internal rules for staff and associates may strike many as unnecessary, yet it is certain that, combined with the terms of labour legislation, it strengthens any dismissal for just cause with a duly grounded termination of the employment contract.
Recently, in a meeting with the Chief Prosecutor of the Labour Prosecution Office (MPT) of Rio de Janeiro, we discussed the use of surveillance cameras inside company premises. He observed that, depending on how the constitutional rights at stake are weighed, cameras are sometimes viewed favourably by society, for protecting employers’ property rights, and sometimes regarded as violating employees’ right to privacy. One example: for the Judiciary, the majority view is that cameras installed in canteens serve to protect property and collective safety. For the MPT, as a rule, that kind of camera violates the employee’s right to privacy.
Either way, it is essential to prevent every sort of crisis that may befall a company’s life. In the two situations I witnessed today, I noted that those international stores had a clearly defined containment plan — their staff plainly knew what to do when faced with a well-founded suspicion of theft.
Well, I carry on here in Spanish lands, but Petereit Advogados remains on hand to provide every kind of multifaceted legal support that addresses the main pain points of small and medium-sized business owners.
Ricardo Petereit
