Team size: 36

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?

Our team is composed of outstanding members willing to give the extra mile. We have seen our team thrive during periods of instability, such as the Chapter 11 from which we successfully emerged a few years ago. Most of the team that lived through that period of global instability and crisis in the airline industry continues to work with us to this day. Even during such a crisis, we strived to guide the team with sharp but also human and motivational leadership through a modern management style. This approach has led to an empowered and generous team that stands for the company in times of trouble and enjoys victory in times of success.

The team continues to have permanent communication with the upper management, ensuring that legal and business cooperation are aligned. This is reflected in how other areas view the legal department: a business partner of the company, with full awareness of the financial impact of the legal advice it provides. We strive to enable the group’s long-term strategy, constantly finding the right balance to assess legal risks with a pro-business approach.

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

Wamos Air, a cross-border M&A deal in which we successfully closed an agreement to acquire most of the economic rights of this Spanish ACMI provider. This project was led by our in-house team in coordination with our external counsel in Spain. The transaction, being a cross-border M&A, posed several regulatory challenges, requiring a series of filings and approvals. The deal included the negotiation and obtention of R&W Insurance.

Alongside external counsel, our team successfully led the negotiation and closing of a securitisation facility with several syndicated lenders and lead arrangers. From a legal standpoint the transaction represented a multijurisdictional deal which was led by Avianca’s team in coordination with external counsel located in various jurisdictions including the US and UK as well as Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Colombia. Additionally, the securitization structure includes several complicated agreements and entails pledges (and their subsequent registration and perfection) under multiple jurisdictions. This deal provided Avianca with liquidity for several corporate purposes and stands out for its complex structuring and cross-border nature.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?  

Aside from supporting the ESG initiatives throughout the entire company, the legal team itself is part of such initiatives by actively participating in the Probono Foundation that provides legal services to those in need who can’t afford legal representation.

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 will materially impact the legal profession in the short term in ways we cannot even begin to grasp. We have led an effort to stay on top of these developments; AI tools and automatization apps designed for legal teams. For instance, we currently use -on a daily-basis- tools like Ariel (an AI assistant for legal research); Luminance (an AI-powered platform for contract management) and Zendesk (for workflows, among other things).

To stay updated we have recently launched the creation of a Legal AI Committee, for the purposes of continuing to explore, analyse and discuss how AI -and automatization tools- is impacting our legal profession and staying on top of industry developments in this regard. Our main objective is to continue to push our team to think outside the box and expand the boundaries of legal work, understanding how these tools can optimize tedious processes or repetitive daily tasks, allowing us to streamline legal processes, focus on more strategic work and improve our operational efficiency.