Key team members:  Joana Varela, Paula Quintão, Teresa Quintas, Salvador Cabral, Jacinta Vieira

Team size:   20

Jurisdictions your role covers:   Portugal, Spain, México, Netherlands and the US

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

Internationalisation of the Group’s activity, particularly the activity of Via Verde, A-to-be and Controlauto, creation of Via Verde Pay (payments entity), in addition to monitoring the current activity of the various entities of the Group, at national and international level.

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? 

Volume, matters requiring more specific technical and legal knowledge (e.g. competition, taxation or sectoral regulation), jurisdiction and local knowledge, and the need for external opinion/validation are factors that typically influence the decision to carry out the work in-house or outsource it. In terms of metrics, we would highlight technical quality and solidity combined with good responsiveness (speed and effectiveness in analysis), business knowledge and pro-business attitude, and internal customer satisfaction.

 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 legal team ultimately has a cross-sectional view of the Group’s entire activity, combining legal skills with knowledge of the different business areas in which the Group operates, providing essential support in defining and implementing the Group’s strategy. Our contribution is evident both in providing legal support for compliance with legal and contractual obligations and in structuring, negotiating and implementing new businesses and partnerships. In terms of internationalisation strategy, the legal team coordinates transactions internally with the support of local teams, which allows it to immediately acquire knowledge of the market in question, the target audience in question and, on the other hand, benefit from internal knowledge of the rules applicable to the respective activity. In terms of initiatives, we would like to highlight a set of training courses that the legal team is providing to the organisation on topics considered relevant to the Group.

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

Currently, one of the biggest legal and regulatory challenges in our sector (road infrastructure and mobility) is adapting to the emerging legal framework linked to energy transition, digitalisation and sustainable mobility. The growing demand for ESG criteria, technological evolution and the need to comply with environmental and data protection standards are transforming our regulatory framework very quickly and, in some areas, disruptively. Internally, we have sought to strengthen the team with people with different skills, provide diverse training to the team aligned with emerging risks and opportunities, provide legal support for innovation projects (especially in the field of electric mobility) and, whenever necessary, call on external consultants to help us on specific issues.

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

The Group has a very strong training policy, which allows the team to benefit from a range of national and international training courses. On the other hand, there is a practice of challenging the team to undertake extra-legal training, as is the case with PAGE at Universidade Católica. In terms of sharing information internally, we seek to enhance the sharing of experience and information, namely through the creation of multidisciplinary project teams.

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

We believe that the success of our team is a result of its diversity, the combination of people with different backgrounds and experiences, people who have in-depth knowledge of the Group and its activities, and people who have recently joined the team and bring a range of new ideas and ways of working. We strive to ensure that this diversity is also reflected in our partnerships. We also foster a culture of open dialogue between colleagues to strengthen the service we provide to internal customers.