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

Currently, we are involved in the turnaround process related to the acquisition of distribution companies in Rondônia and Acre, which has required us to significantly reduce provisions, expenses and negotiate relevant processes with the state government. Also, we are involved in the management of processes involving the 2019 blackout in Amapa, and studying the recent acquisition of Grupo Energisa from Gemini.

In addition to this challenge, we have been working throughout the Energisa Group, particularly in energy distributors all around the country, to improve their operating results, with our legal department responsible for a 15% reduction in the provision value for new incoming lawsuits, with a corresponding reduction in the payment of convictions. The commitment takes place within the scope of a project called Transformation that, since 2018, including pioneering companies, has already reduced 50% in this specific item. This has been an important partnership between legal and operational areas.

In terms of its operational structure, our legal team has modernised and deepened its controls, having created, in November 2021, the legal efficiency management team, which is made up of professionals from different backgrounds. It concentrates the area’s transactional activities, as well as those related to KPI management, analysis of strategy performance defined in the business plan and, finally, administration and refinement of the lawsuit software. Lastly, we are the company’s strategic partners in M&A processes, supporting its strategic process of digitisation, diversification, decarbonisation and diversification of its business portfolio.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

Energisa’s process of hiring external law firms undergoes specific scrutiny by the procurement and compliance area, which aims to analyse its values ​​and reputation as a starting point, together with the legal department. In this sense, compliance with our motto “customers, results, people and innovations” are essential for maintaining law firms in the portfolio of potential company partners.

Law firms are monitored through an online platform for supplier management, which aims to allow a detailed and objective analysis of the performance of all firms that serve Energisa, analysing metrics, such as performance at paid, archiving the base, and others. The offices and members of the internal legal department have on the platform an environment for monthly monitoring of results, with analytical information on the processes, allowing the analysis and criticism of the data contained in the dashboard, where it is possible to follow the contractually predefined indicators.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use? Examples could be greater flexibility in billing, a more expansive suite of services offered, more transparency in reporting ESG statistics etc.

Reduction of proposals, aiming to align them with the size of the business and the project, billing flexibility, and inclusion of technological solutions in the production process, aiming to reduce the cost passed on to the company.