Team size: Four

Major legal advisors: CS Associados, PLMJ

Jurisdictions your role covers: Portugal, Spain, France, Netherlands

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the past years the legal team of Ascendi, was challenged on its role, as a managing supporting team, as the group company has extended its operations beyond national borders seeking new projects and therefore new challenges to the legal team. This is not only at the bid/implementation stage but also, if not mainly, throughout the execution phase of each project, each one having its own rhythm, challenges, complexities, which naturally result of the project itself but also, and specially relevant to our team, from the legal framework applicable individually. 

On the other hand, the national market itself has been rich on challenges of different nature, either through the form or new contests or the introduction of wide amplitude changes, an example of which are the legal measures related to toll discounts/abolition.

What do you value most in external advisers working alongside your team: sector knowledge, responsiveness, innovation, or something else? 

It is for us absolutely determinant the level of knowledge on the sector/area of activity/jurisdiction underlying each question or topic on which the external support is needed, in order to assure the necessary certainty and solidness required in order to allow a well-reasoned decision-making.

In what ways has technology or process innovation changed how your legal team operates? 

The legal team, insofar as it concerns matters relating to innovation and technology, is not particularly different from other teams within the group as it naturally benefits from technological innovations across the entire organization, such as the use of AI tools or various types of corporate applications—ranging from fleet management to invoicing—which are utilized across all company. In the specific case of the legal team, recent years have been marked by refinements and improvements to the applications already in use for accident and insurance matters, but also, more recently, for contract management. In this specific case, the commitment to introducing contract validation and management applications has proved to be a sound decision, as it enables more agile management, the creation of a reliable archive, and accurate process tracking and monitoring. This team has also benefited from AI-based applications, an area in which the team has invested heavily in training as well, anticipating future challenges.