Adelante · Hispanic Heritage Month 2026
Lupe López
Senior Counsel, Commercial Legal Strategy, Adyen
Legal chapter
Lupe López builds the frameworks, agreement architecture and playbooks that let Adyen's legal team keep pace with new products and new markets. The argument in these answers is that AI's real opportunity in legal is to capture institutional knowledge and make good judgment available across the whole company.
01What you're building
What are you building right now, and what does it make possible that wasn't possible before?
Right now, I’m really focused on building the infrastructure that allows Legal to operate at the speed the business needs to operate. A lot of my work sits at the intersection of new products, new markets, and commercial execution. So rather than Legal coming in at the end of a product or commercial process and figuring out how to paper a deal, I’ve been working on building the frameworks, agreement architecture, playbooks, and ways of working that let us get to “yes” much faster.
I’m increasingly thinking about how AI fits into that. Not just using AI to draft faster, but using it to capture institutional knowledge, make good legal judgment more accessible, and automate some of the work that doesn’t actually require a lawyer’s judgment. That’s where I see a big opportunity for the function to “democratize” legal knowledge across the broader organization.
02What it took
What did it take to get here that people don't see?
A lot of trial and error, and a willingness to learn from both. Early on, I spent a lot of time building complex, manual processes that ultimately didn’t scale. But those experiences taught me how to think more strategically about systems, processes, and frameworks. Much of the strategic thinking I rely on today was shaped by figuring out what worked, what didn’t, and why. Those lessons continue to inform how I approach problems and build solutions every day.
Some of my strongest partnerships and advocates have come from solving difficult problems together rather than pretending I had all the answers.
03Who carried you
Who carried you, and what did they teach you that you still use every week?
The friends, family, and colleagues (old and new) who have reminded me of how resilient I am, appreciated my approach to rolling up my sleeves, and treated my curiosity and hunger to learn as strengths rather than weaknesses. They’ve created an environment where I feel seen, supported, and empowered to keep growing, no matter how senior I become.
04For the leader coming up
What is the one thing you'd tell the leader coming up behind you?
Don’t underestimate the power of saying “I don’t know” or “I haven’t figured this out yet.” I’ve found that it can be a powerful leadership trait. Some of my strongest partnerships and advocates have come from solving difficult problems together rather than pretending I had all the answers. Being in legal doesn’t mean you have to be the smartest person in the room or have every answer. It means knowing how to ask the right questions, bring people together, and figure it out.
05Adelante
Adelante means forward. Where are you taking your function, your company, or your industry next?
I think the next evolution of Legal is becoming much more of a strategic enabler for the business. I’d like to build a function that’s deeply connected to where the company is going, can anticipate what the business will need, and creates the right frameworks and infrastructure so we can move quickly without reinventing the wheel every time. That means lawyers spending less time on things that can be standardized or streamlined, and more time on judgment, strategy, and the problems that really need us.
The recognition · Legal
Lupe López works on commercial legal strategy at Adyen and had a hand in launching Adyen Agentic, which is what it looks like when a commercial lawyer is close enough to the product to help ship it rather than only paper it. She is recognized in the Legal chapter for being inside the build rather than adjacent to it, which is where commercial lawyers are most useful and least often found.
Meet all the Adelante leadersThe Floor
Every leader recognized in Adelante answers a short set of questions in their own words, and the answers they approve go into the 2027 book.
