Key team members:

Pedro Vale Gonçalves, VP of Legal and Compliance

Duarte Almeida, Legal & Compliance Advisor

Team size: Two

Major legal advisors: Abreu Advogados, Miranda Advogados, Orrick, and Cooley

Jurisdictions covered: Portugal, US, UK, Germany, Romania, Philippines, Israel, and Bulgaria

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

Unbabel’s Legal & Compliance team, composed of just two in-house professionals, has played a central role in several high impact matters over the past year. Chief among these was the company’s most recent investment round, a multi-jurisdictional transaction involving international venture capital funds. The legal team led the entire process internally, from structuring and negotiation to regulatory alignment and closing, managing investor expectations across multiple legal systems including the US, UK, Portugal, and Israel.

The successful execution of this transaction, with limited reliance on external counsel, underlined the team’s capacity to manage complex, high value matters while ensuring compliance with local and international frameworks. Beyond transactional work, the team routinely handles high-stakes commercial agreements, privacy and data protection matters, and contractual frameworks for global clients.

This hands-on approach allows the legal function to maintain close integration with the company’s operations, product development, and commercial strategy, enabling timely and business-focused legal support across jurisdictions.

Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

The legal team at Unbabel operates as a core business enabler, contributing directly to operational efficiency, risk management, and strategic positioning. Legal support is fully integrated into the company’s processes, particularly across sales, product development, information security, and data governance, ensuring that legal input accelerates business, rather than hindering it.

One of the most impactful initiatives led by the legal function in the past year was the coordination of Unbabel’s ISO 27001 re-certification. In departure from the industry norm, the Legal & Compliance Team assumed full leadership of the certification process, coordinating cross-functional input from Engineering, Operations, HR, and Security. The legal team oversaw risk assessment, policy development, training, and audit preparation.

The achievement of ISO 27001 re-certification not only strengthened Unbabel’s security posture but also unlocked commercial opportunities with enterprise clients that require high standards of data protection. It demonstrated the legal team’s ability to lead strategically critical initiatives, while aligning regulatory requirements with broader business objectives.

On a day-to-day basis, the team has also led improvements in contract lifecycle management, negotiation efficiency, and compliance automation, ensuring that legal risk is managed proactively without compromising business agility.

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

The intersection between artificial intelligence regulation and data protection legislation presents one of the most complex challenges currently facing industry. For Unbabel, a provider of AI-driven language solutions operating across multiple sectors and regions, regulatory clarity and compliance are both strategic imperatives and competitive differentiators.

To stay ahead of regulatory developments, the legal team has adopted a proactive, policy-engaged approach. The legal team has contributed to working groups organised by the EU AI Office, including participation in the drafting of the GenAI Code of Practice. Our VP of Legal and Compliance also served as a researcher in the EU-funded Bridge AIprogramme, which supports SMEs in developing responsible AI, and co-founded the Center for Responsible AI in Portugal, a non-profit initiative focused on promoting ethical AI governance.

This involvement has positioned the legal function at the forefront of regulatory trends, allowing Unbabel to anticipate changes, adapt internal practices accordingly, and advise clients and partners from a position of thought leadership and credibility.

By combining legal rigour with active participation in policy formation, the team ensures that Unbabel remains compliant, resilient, and competitive in an evolving regulatory landscape.