Team size: 25

What are the projects that you are most proud of working on over the past 12 months?

Building a resilient and scalable legal and compliance department within a rapidly growing asset manager that invests globally in emerging markets, and which has gone from $0 to ~1bn in assets under management in less than three years. In particular: designing, implementing and overseeing the internal governance and policy framework within a highly regulated financial services industry; advising and guiding the ILX Team in the day-to-day investment activities of a Dutch-regulated company whose investments are done entirely in non-EU, non-regulated environments.

Securing approximately $1bn for ILX’s investment funds from Dutch and Danish pension funds, leading the structuring/restructuring processes, as well as the legal and compliance due diligence processes.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

During my early years, when working at a boutique insolvency and restructuring firm, there was a small team of lawyers handling a huger number of procedures, most of them having to let go of costly C-suit personnel. That enabled me to take up leadership and decision-making responsibilities at a very young age, having to make the most of my legal skills to secure confidence from otherwise more senior professionals of the intervened companies.

As a corporate counsel at BBVA, I was responsible for leading the team that designed all legal aspects of one of the first hybrid general meetings of a listed company ever to take place in Spain, when COVID hit in 2020.

At ILX I had to design the entire legal and governance structure and lead all legal investment and corporate matters of a newly created company that started large-scale investing in the first months after I joined and was fundraising at the same time. All in a jurisdiction that was foreign to me as a Spanish-qualified lawyer and while also setting up/recruiting the team.

What do you think sets you apart from other in-house counsel?

My ability to design strategically from the top and, at the same time, be willing and able to review and advise on very specific, technically complex issues with utmost rigor.

How can general counsel foster a corporate culture that supports ESG principles and compliance across all levels of the organisation?

Sustainability is engrained and at the heart of ILX’s mission, it is the essence of what we do as an impact investor. In the asset management space in which we operate, I believe the general counsel can and should play a pivotal role in: assisting the organisation in navigating the complex landscape of ESG/sustainability regulations, so that employees can understand their essence and core objectives of it; and (ii) be cognisant of key ESG risks while striving to create a culture of awareness that brings natural compliance as opposed to forced/mandated compliance within the organisation.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

The current macroeconomic and political landscape will be extremely challenging for in-house counsel across Europe, given the high chance of many industries being impacted by sudden, interconnected changes in EU and US regulations. Lawyers will be requested to opine and provide advice fast; those who are resistant to change could lead their organisations to stagnate and, at the same time, it is in times like these when lawyers’ wit and wisdom to see beyond short-termism will be crucial.