Agenda

General counsel are increasingly being asked to advise on decisions that may shape their organisations for years to come, while operating in a geopolitical context that can change overnight. Amid uncertainty, legal teams are expected to help balance commercial opportunity against the strategic risks associated with long-term contracts, risk allocation, exposure to volatile markets and major operational changes.

Using energy-related decisions as a lens, this panel will explore how GCs across sectors approach long-term planning, advise boards and help their organisations respond to an increasingly unpredictable operating environment.

5.15pm-5.45pm Competition law in Europe: fragmentation, privilege and competition compliance, in association with Jones Day
This panel will be held in Spanish.

Competition law continues to raise difficult questions for businesses operating across Europe, as legal teams navigate divergent enforcement approaches, differing rules on legal professional privilege and evolving regulatory expectations across jurisdictions.

This discussion will explore how senior in-house counsel can build and maintain effective competition compliance frameworks in this increasingly complex environment. Panellists will consider the practical impact of regulatory fragmentation across Europe, including differing approaches to legal professional privilege and the protection of communications involving in-house counsel. The discussion will also examine recent developments, including the CNMC’s new guidance on competition compliance programmes, and what these changes mean in practice for Spanish legal teams with cross-border responsibilities.

5.45pm-6.05pm Coffee break

6.05pm-6.50pm Arbitration without surprises: how GCs manage control over costs, strategy, and outcomes in practice, in association with Whitewell
This panel will be held in Spanish.

For many Spanish in-house teams, arbitration has become increasingly complex to manage in the last few years. Regulatory changes, pressure on legal budgets, the growing role of third-party funders, and higher expectations from the business have all raised the stakes. Arbitration can still be the right tool when handling disputes from a commercial perspective, but it now requires much closer attention and closer management than before.

For general counsel, choosing arbitration is no longer a purely legal decision, but a business strategy. It is often a commitment to a long and resource-intensive process that needs to be explained internally, monitored closely and continuously adjusted as the dispute evolves. What looks sensible at the clause-drafting stage does not always play out as expected once the dispute is underway.

This panel will bring together GCs and arbitration practitioners to discuss how arbitration is actually being managed inside companies today. The conversation will focus on recent cases and real decisions regarding how costs have been managed (or not), how strategy evolves mid-proceeding, where surprises have caught teams off guard, and how legal teams can better anticipate and manage arbitration processes in practice.

6.50pm-7.35pm The strategic role of general counsel in navigating debt capital markets, in association with Ramon y Cajal
This panel will be held in Spanish.

Raising capital and securing alternative sources of financing have become more challenging in an environment shaped by economic uncertainty, an evolving regulatory landscape, and increasing sources of investment capital. Whether supporting growth, refinancing debt or responding to shareholder pressure, legal teams are expected to help boards balance commercial objectives with legal and reputational risk.

This session will explore the strategic role of general counsel in capital markets-related decision-making beyond just executing the transaction. Panellists will discuss regulatory initiatives in the EU, UK and USA that are dramatically changing the options available to both public and private companies in issuing debt, and the growth of private capital as an alternate source of funding. The choices companies make among these options impact financing costs, transaction costs, disclosure obligations and more. The panel will lead a vigorous discussion of how legal leaders help businesses navigate periods of heightened scrutiny while retaining strategic flexibility.

7.35pm-7.45pm Break

7.45pm-8.15pm Proceed, renegotiate or walk away? Critical decision-making in M&A, in association with RDL
This panel will be held in Spanish.

The conversation around transformational M&A in Spanish businesses has evolved significantly in recent years. Increasingly, companies are using transactions not simply to grow through scale, but to acquire new capabilities, reshape their market position, and transform the way they operate.

With M&A now firmly established as a tool for business transformation and growth, the question facing many GCs is no longer whether to pursue a deal, but how to make the toughest calls when circumstances change.

In this fireside chat session, M&A experts from RLD will join GCs who have been on the frontlines of landmark transactions to discuss the critical judgments that define successful dealmaking.