About

Norte Energia is responsible for the construction and operation of the giant Belo Monte Dam complex, the fourth-largest hydroelectric dam complex in the world by installed capacity and a strategically important project for the Brazilian economy. The six-person Norte Energia legal team is led by general counsel Roberto Federici and has had a significant impact on the successful progress on the project. Federici has been supported throughout the team’s endeavours by Luiz Otavio Vilella and Thiago Bandeira, corporate legal manager and operational legal manager respectively, with the Norte Energia legal team having a major impact on the dam starting its first power-generating turbines in 2016. Federici mentions the team’s demanding workload in support of the project: they have had to ‘structure project finance, deal with challenging EPC´s, highly sophisticated agreements, complex litigations and arbitrations along with managing the environmental matters’. When handling these myriad issues, Federici is clear that the team never loses sight of its overarching goal, that of ‘anticipating problems and providing objective solutions’ for the company.