Team size: 8 lawyers across 4 European jurisdictions (Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Slovakia)

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

My team and I have been working on landmark projects over the past year, reflecting the scale and strategic evolution of Cintra’s European operations. We are advising on two major public tender processes in Europe, each involving investments of approximately €2bn. One concerns a high-speed rail section, marking a strategic expansion beyond our traditional toll-road business, while the other relates to a greenfield motorway concession pursued through international consortia.

A major milestone was the opening of the Silvertown Tunnel in London on 7 April 2025, the first new road crossing under the Thames in over 30 years. As part of the Riverlinx consortium, Cintra delivered the project under a DBFOM contract with Transport for London, with my team leading the European legal work from construction into operations.

Beyond these transactions, my team supports the governance and operation of Cintra’s European concession portfolio across multiple jurisdictions and asset management activities.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

When I look back on my professional career, one experience truly stands out: my time as Head of Legal for Cintra in North America, from 2006 to 2014. After nine years specialising in M&A at Cuatrecasas – including a secondment at Herbert Smith in London that gave me fluency in common law and capital markets – I took on the challenge of leading the entire US legal function for one of the world’s largest infrastructure developers.

I was based in Austin, Texas for almost five years, where I had the privilege of leading a team of American lawyers, negotiating complex public-private partnership contracts with US authorities, structuring financing agreements with US banks, and sitting at the table with the most prestigious US law firms. We were at the forefront of pioneering the Managed Lanes concept in Texas, a groundbreaking toll-road model. Beyond transactional work, I was directly involved in analyzing draft legislation before the Texas Legislature that impacted Cintra’s business, contributing proposed alternative language to lawmakers.

When I returned to Europe in 2014, I was tasked with building Cintra’s European legal department from the ground up. I had to set up the legal function from scratch: designing its structure, recruiting the team and establishing processes across multiple jurisdictions. One key decision was to integrate the project financing legal work into the broader project teams, rather than maintaining a separate financing unit – an approach that improved efficiency and ensured a holistic understanding of each concession.

This bicontinental journey fundamentally shaped my understanding of the role of legal counsel as a strategic force within an organisation. I genuinely believe it is a unique professional path that very few lawyers have the opportunity to live.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

During periods of instability or crisis, the legal department must focus on risks that could threaten business continuity, helping decisionmakers understand legal boundaries and distinguish between what is critical and what can wait. Our response to the COVID‑19 pandemic illustrates this approach. When traffic on our European concessions dropped overnight, my team carried out an urgent, multi‑jurisdictional review of twelve European concession agreements and their related financing documentation. We acted on two fronts simultaneously: on the public law side, we filed claims for economic rebalancing on motorway concessions in Spain and Portugal; on the financing side, we negotiated waivers with lending syndicates to prevent covenant breaches. Each syndicate involved an average of eight banks, requiring intensive multi‑party negotiations under extreme time pressure. The key lesson is that in a crisis, the legal function earns its strategic role by combining speed with rigor, delivering clear and pragmatic advice that enables the business to act decisively while effectively managing legal risk.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

The legal team is not only responsible for identifying potential issues, but also plays a key role in shaping strategy, managing risk and enabling the business to overcome legal obstacles.

A concrete example involved a proposed divestment of minority stakes in seven European projects. As regulated, publicly procured and financed assets, each divestment would normally have required approvals from public authorities, financing syndicates averaging eight banks per project, and consortium partners. The cumulative approvals would have been extensive, time‑consuming and, in some cases, uncertain. My team conducted an in‑depth analysis and designed an alternative legal structure that significantly reduced the number of required consents. This solution saved between eight and eighteen months of execution time and avoided substantial lender fees. Most importantly, it made the transaction viable: without the legal restructuring, certain divestments would likely have been blocked. The transaction, valued at approximately €100m, was ultimately completed successfully.