Team size: 205

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

To overcome these challenges, we need to be constantly up to date and have an active and combative team of specialists (our own and partners). Furthermore, implementing innovation tools and being aware of market trends are essential for success.

In the Group’s legal management, we have projects to prevent and reduce litigation, of which we highlight the following projects: Legal Demand Committees (Legal Manager): Monthly meetings to analyse the root cause of legal and administrative demands with the participation of all areas of the company in the search for actions to reduce liabilities by resolving cases and to provide feedback on procedures with the business areas; Direct Line Project: Communication channel for resolving conflicts with Procons, Public Defenders’ Offices and Public Prosecutors’ Offices in the states where the Equatorial Group operates. The results achieved by this project result in a resolution rate of over 80%.

What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?

Legal performance in the acquisition process of SABESP, the largest sanitation company in Latin America and one of the largest in the world: Sabesp’s M&A project required the legal department to act on several fronts and provide support to senior management, such as: (i) Legal and Governance Structure for the investment; (ii) Legal support in structuring the Financial Raising; (iii) Preparation of the contingency model by the internal legal department; (iv) Preparation of the offering documents, the Bylaws and FRE to protect EQTL shareholders in the investment; (v) Implementation of the Commercial Note to raise R$6.5 billion; General ACP Agreements (Equatorial Goiás and MP): Joint closure of 63 Public Civil Actions on energy quality and commercial failures, eliminating the risk of an estimated disbursement of R$267MM between convictions for collective moral damages and fines, and also generating a reversal of R$12MM in contingency values ​​already provisioned, counting on a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the convergence of requests, institutional articulation with MP/GO, Defensoria/GO, Procon/GO and Court of Justice of Goiás.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?

AI is, without a shadow of a doubt, the technology that is most likely to impact the legal profession as a whole, whether in its application in the area of ​​legal operations, or in its use to optimise more assertive defences, and also its use by the Courts, which ends up impacting the way lawyers work, who need to differentiate their cases from those that are currently judged repeatedly by the Courts using this tool. The department has a structure focused on innovation and the use of technology to optimise workflows, streamline processes, and support decision-making. It has a multidisciplinary executive area composed of data scientists, administrators, accountants, economists, and other specialists. In addition to working in data management and legal controllership, this team is responsible for data governance and the development of solutions such as Dashboards, RPAs (automations) – to date, 75 solutions have been developed internally, and AI for calculating the assertiveness of provision tickets.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?

The Department is made up of 65% women, and the leadership is made up of 53% women. To promote an inclusive and equitable environment, in accordance with the Group’s Guidelines, there are D&I programs that are disseminated throughout the Board of Directors.