About

Luz Saúde is one of Portugal’s largest healthcare companies; running a total of 20 different units including hospitals, private clinics and senior residences throughout Portugal, for which the legal team is highly involved in all business activities. The group has undergone several organisational changes in the last few years, but despite these changes and a difficult market situation the company has grown through its acquisition of hospitals and bolstering its total number of staff. During this time, the legal team has become known as the ‘right hand of the executive’, achieving significant results through transactions and legal guidance. Luz Saúde’s head of legal, compliance and company secretary is João Ferreira Rebelo, a noted teacher and speaker of health law and related disciplines in the health care industry. Made up of a group of 11 lawyers and one paralegal, the team is highly specialised. Each area of concern is dealt with by individual team members, spanning litigation, general legal affairs, human resources and corporate housekeeping alongside health law, investigations and ethics. Rebelo coordinates special projects in addition to representing the legal team on the board of directors in his role as company secretary. Providing a tangible example of a positive impact on the business, the legal team was crucial in a complex IPO and subsequent takeover bid, involving cooperation with teams in London and the United States, whilst establishing relations with shareholders who needed to be briefed by the team on the principal issues in the company at this time of fundamental change. Internally, Rebelo and the team have overseen the rollout of a new training scheme which is mutually beneficial for legal and business teams; the scheme allows them to train business partners so they can ‘identify problems and situations where they need legal help’, and so the legal ‘team [can] understand daily business’. The scheme, Rebelo states, is ‘succeeding and has very good feedback’. Subject to market forces requiring them to reduce prices yet perform activities at the same high standards, the Luz Saúde legal team contains an outstanding group of achievers that have been able to succeed even in this difficult context.