Key team members:

Isabel Lage, General Counsel

Francisco Alves, Head of Legal, Insurance

Patrícia Cabrita, Legal Manager, Labour

Luísa Rafael, Legal Manager, Litigation

João Galrão, Legal Manager, Contracts

Miguel Cancela de Abreu, Legal Manager, Investment

Team size: 26

Major legal advisors: Morais Leitão and Linklaters

Jurisdictions your role covers: Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Hungary and several other Central-European jurisdictions), Africa (Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde), Asia (Macao) and America (U.S.A., Peru, Bolivia Paraguay and Chile), among others.

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?

Each external legal advisor is selected through a competitive process in which, for major projects, up to 3 top-tier legal advisers are invited to bid. Their track record and proposed assumptions are carefully assessed and negotiated. With most of the technical expertise held in-house, and such a versatile and multidisciplinary team, we deliver the majority of legal work in-house according to high quality standards and in a cost-efficient manner.

We mainly outsource legal services in large projects and in jurisdictions where we are not qualified to operate, where the risks involved require the intervention of local qualified experts. The hub of each legal matter remains with Fidelidade, never shifting to the external advisor, and we always make sure that the external legal input is aligned with Fidelidade’s overall strategy and approach to legal risk management.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

The team is highly business driven working in strict bilateral collaboration with business teams in a wide range of matters in different sectors and in various jurisdictions. By working this closely with our business teams, we help create a seamless project management environment where the issues are dealt with holistically rather than fragmented into artificial areas of expertise. This allows us to achieve enhanced performance and to produce a sophisticated, cohesive product.

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

We are constantly challenged by regulatory developments, as many of our activities are under the supervision of regulators such as the insurance, markets, banking and competition ones, not only in Portugal but also across several jurisdictions.

Within our insurance legal practice, we are often required to team up with business teams to ensure compliance with the highest regulatory standards, not only in relation to our products, but also their distribution and our conduct across markets. The ever-evolving sustainability requirements and the recent implementation of DORA have also posed significant challenges to our teams in a wide range of areas.