Team size: 15

Major legal advisors: Vieira de Almeida; Morais Leitão, CS Associados; PLMJ; Eversheds; Linkelaters; Bird & Bird, DWF

Jurisdictions your role covers: 8 countries in Europe; USA, Brazil, Mexico, Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé, South Africa

Career Background

As General Counsel of Grupo Visabeira, Isabel Fernandes oversees legal matters across a diversified international group operating in sectors including telecommunications, energy, technology, construction, industry and tourism. With operations and projects spanning Europe, Africa and the Americas, her role involves supporting strategic growth, managing cross-border legal and governance matters, coordinating international legal networks and working closely with executive leadership on complex business and operational initiatives. 

Her approach combines legal expertise with commercial awareness, cross-functional collaboration and a strong focus on building trusted relationships across jurisdictions, cultures and business environments.

How do you manage and coordinate legal responsibilities across multiple jurisdictions from a Portugal based role, and what are the main challenges this presents in practice? 

Managing legal responsibilities across multiple jurisdictions requires a balance between strategic oversight, operational flexibility and strong alignment with business priorities. At Grupo Visabeira, our international presence across Europe, Africa and the Americas means that legal matters often involve different regulatory frameworks, business cultures and operational realities. 

One of the key challenges is ensuring consistency in governance and risk management while remaining adaptable to local legal and commercial environments. This requires close coordination with management teams, operational stakeholders and external advisers across different jurisdictions, always with a practical and business-oriented approach. 

In international organisations, legal teams must also operate with agility. Supporting business growth across multiple sectors means being involved early in strategic discussions and helping translate complex legal issues into clear and pragmatic guidance for decision makers. 

Equally important are communication and relationship-building skills. Working across diverse markets and cultures requires flexibility, responsiveness and the ability to build trusted relationships across functions and jurisdictions. In many situations, effective coordination depends as much on collaboration and communication as on technical legal expertise. 

Operating from Portugal offers an interesting perspective, combining proximity to executive leadership with an increasingly international business environment. Ultimately, success in this type of role depends on combining legal expertise with adaptability, commercial understanding and the ability to support business objectives in complex international settings. 

In what ways does your legal function contribute to international business strategy, transformation or growth, beyond traditional compliance or risk mitigation?

The role of the legal function has evolved significantly in recent years. In international groups operating across multiple sectors and jurisdictions, legal teams are increasingly expected to contribute directly to business strategy, transformation and sustainable growth. 

At Grupo Visabeira, the legal function operates as a strategic business partner, closely connected to executive leadership and operational teams. Our involvement goes far beyond traditional legal support or risk mitigation. We participate actively in international expansion projects, complex commercial negotiations, corporate structuring decisions and strategic partnerships. 

One of the key priorities is helping the organisation grow while maintaining agility, resilience and sound governance standards. Legal teams today must provide solutions that support business objectives while balancing legal certainty with commercial pragmatism. 

Cross-functional collaboration is also essential. Many strategic decisions involve legal, financial, operational and technological considerations simultaneously. As a result, the legal function increasingly acts as a bridge between different stakeholders, helping align priorities and facilitate effective decision making across the organisation. 

In an international context, soft skills such as adaptability, communication and relationship management are becoming increasingly important for legal leadership. Supporting transformation across different cultures, sectors and jurisdictions requires not only technical expertise, but also the ability to build trust, communicate clearly and work collaboratively in fast-moving environments. 

I believe modern legal teams are increasingly measured not only by the risks they prevent, but also by the long-term value they help create for the business.

How do you structure relationships with internal stakeholders and external counsel across different jurisdictions to ensure effective collaboration and decision making?

Effective collaboration is fundamental when managing legal matters across multiple jurisdictions and business sectors. One of the main priorities of our legal function is ensuring that legal advice remains closely connected to business needs and decision-making processes at every level of the organisation. 

Internally, this requires continuous interaction with executive leadership and operational teams. Legal departments create the most value when they are integrated into strategic discussions from an early stage rather than operating in isolation. Building relationships based on trust, responsiveness and commercial understanding is therefore essential. 

Within a diversified international group, strong cross-functional relationships are particularly important. Different business units operate in different regulatory and commercial environments, which makes communication, flexibility and alignment critical to effective decision making. 

Externally, we work closely with specialised law firms and advisers across several jurisdictions. Selecting external counsel is based not only on technical expertise, but also on responsiveness, business understanding and the ability to work collaboratively within an international framework. 

From a leadership perspective, managing international legal networks requires balancing global coordination with local realities. Ultimately, successful legal collaboration depends not only on technical excellence, but also on communication, cultural awareness, adaptability and the ability to build trusted relationships across jurisdictions, sectors and teams.