Key team members:

Sara Barbot Roquette, Group Director, Head of Legal & General Counsel

Marta Vieira da Silva, Legal Manager Iberia

Corina Pacurar, Legal Manager, Romania

Joanna Brodnicka, Legal Manager, Poland & Germany

Maigualida Vasquez, Legal Manager, Mexico

Yavor Sokolov, Legal Manager, Bulgaria

Team size: Seven

Major legal advisors: MLGTS (Portugal), MHL (Germany), MJH (Poland), SKS (Poland), Andersen (Spain), Perez-Llorca (Portugal & Spain)

Jurisdictions your role covers: Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Mexico, USA

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The period from 2024 until early 2025 has been anything but dull for the BA Glass legal team. We’ve been busy – and not just with our inboxes! The past year has been marked by high-impact transactions for BA Glass, with the legal team playing a central role. We supported the acquisition of a majority share in a company operating two glass plants in Mexico, the full acquisition of Recresco Limited in the UK, and an asset deal involving the purchase of the Orzesze plant from Can Pack Glass in Poland. Each deal brought its own regulatory, contractual, and operational complexities.

These operations were led by Sara Barbot Roquette, Group Legal Director and General Counsel, with Marta Vieira da Silva and Joanna Brodnicka taking on the legal execution of the Mexico and Recresco transactions, and the Orzesze deal, respectively. The team’s ability to manage multiple cross-border transactions while aligning legal risk with business goals has been a clear differentiator.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

The decision to engage external counsel depends largely on jurisdictional requirements and the nature of the legal matter. In countries like Poland and Bulgaria, in-house counsels are not permitted to appear in court, necessitating external litigation support. In Germany, most matters are labour-related and require deep local expertise and bar admission. In Spain, where we do not currently have an in-house lawyer, litigation and advisory work are consistently handled by a trusted external advisor with longstanding knowledge of our business.

In Portugal, we externalise only highly sensitive issues, mainly in the labour area. Romania is fully covered by our in-house counsel, Corina Pacurar, and in Greece – where we are gradually exiting the market – we continue to work with Anna Danali, who previously joined us as an external advisor in a secondment regime.

As for Mexico, being a new operation, external legal services are still supporting the transition, but the aim is to internalise most functions over time. When we do engage external firms, performance is assessed based on responsiveness, legal depth, industry familiarity, and pragmatic problem-solving. External lawyers, as our partners, must understand that we do not cut on principles and this is something critical for us.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company?

We’re not just lawyers; we’re embedded business partners with a legal toolkit and a strategic compass. From due diligence to deal structuring, we’re present at the decision-making table. And we bring with us not just legal insight, but institutional memory – what’s worked, what hasn’t, and how to avoid déjà vu dressed as a business plan.

When you face multiple M&A transactions in the same group, in-housers must be aligned and full and effective collaboration is crucial across the legal department. This is like an orchestra: although everyone is playing their own instrument, the outcome symphony must be flawless. At BA Glass’ legal department we have a principle: we’ve got your back! And this works not only within the legal team, but also with any other team at BA Glass.

What are some of the biggest legal or regulatory challenges currently facing your industry, and how is your team preparing to address them?

The glass industry is highly energy-intensive, and regulatory developments related to environmental performance, carbon emissions, and energy use are among our top concerns. With CO₂ emission regulations tightening, energy costs surging, and ESG pressures mounting, compliance is no longer enough; foresight is mandatory. Our legal team is proactively scanning regulatory trends, engaging in cross-industry forums, and working closely with our operations and sustainability teams to ensure we’re not just reacting, but anticipating.

How do you approach talent development and knowledge sharing within your legal team? Are there any specific practices or programmes in place?

We like our lawyers sharp, curious, and slightly allergic to echo chambers. Internally, we’ve created regular knowledge-sharing forums – informal, conversational, and occasionally humour infused – where we dissect what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d rather not talk about again. We hold brainstorming sessions, post-mortems, and mini “legal labs.” Team members are encouraged to attend webinars, legal summits, and networking events. We see professional development as a shared responsibility and a strategic investment in the quality of our work. Currently, Sara Barbot is juggling an MBA and attended some executive courses at IMD and ESCP Berlin – setting the tone for the other team members.

In what ways does your legal team promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, both within the department and in your external legal partnerships?

BA Glass operates across multiple geographies, with teams representing a wide range of nationalities, cultures, and beliefs. Diversity is embedded in our everyday work, and inclusion is a natural outcome of our collaboration across countries.