About

Made up of 14 members from four different nationalities, the Spanish legal department at Siemens is an ‘international team embedded within, and trusted by, the business’, according to general counsel and secretary of the board of directors Fernando Ortega. The team achieved its internal status by working on a number of international deals during the last year – none more headline-grabbing than the proposed acquisition of a 59% stake in Gamesa, a leading Spanish wind-farm developer. In securing the merger, the Siemens Spain legal team became heavily involved in negotiations since the deal was announced in June 2016 and helped obtain clearance from the European Commission’s competition department. Once completed, the deal will see the two companies have a combined market share of 13% and will create the world’s biggest builder of wind farms. One of the team’s key strengths is having Siemens Contract Management under the responsibility of legal which has given them greater flexibility in providing legal advice not only in Spain but abroad too. Internally, the department has demonstrated innovative prowess by developing tools to manage processes relating to powers of attorney, corporate issues, contracts, claims and internal trainings. Ortega says the team’s transactional activities and commitment to developing new tools are part of ‘implementing our business partner concept, which means to be close and aligned to the business goals, and protecting the company from the legal and integrity perspective’. When discussing the impact of recent market, economic and regulatory changes, Ortega says: ‘All of those elements have obliged legal departments (not only at Siemens) to adjust and review our traditional approach to the new reality. Of course, we have done it successfully and now we can say that we are delivering what the business requires at this moment’.