General counsel, chief legal officer | Iberostar Group
Secretary general and global head of legal | Grupo Secuoya
Global general counsel | Acciona Concesiones
Business and global coordination legal director, secretary of the compliance and audit committee | Iberdrola
Legal director Spain and Latam | Intelcia
Group head of corporate legal and vice-secretary of the board | Banco Santander
General manager corporate governance and legal affairs, secretary of the board | Abanca
Directora de regulacion y servicios juridicos | Grupo Red Electrica
Director of legal advice and internal audit | Grupo Central Lechera Asturiana
Global counsel - regulatory compliance and disputes | Spotify
General counsel and secretary board of directors | Olympic Broadcasting services
General counsel and regulatory affairs | Telefónica
Global deputy general counsel, global corporate legal director, director to the board of directors | Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación
General secretary and first deputy secretary | Iberdrola
Head of legal corporate and investment banking Germany | Banco Santander
Leading research for the maiden edition of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist Spain: Latin America Specialists was a great honour. It was characterised by a high level of engagement, a variety of extensive interviews and an opportunity to identify and liaise with Latin America specialists based in Spain and beyond. I am certainly appreciative of the time spared by these brilliant in-house lawyers to share their plans for their organisations and the investments and transactions they are leading their companies through in Latin America.
Against a backdrop of vast political and regulatory changes in Latin America, GCs are committed to reinforcing their company’s presence within Latin America. In the words of Alejandro Rincón Nieto, chief legal officer of Almar Water Solutions, ‘we will maintain our investment targets, provided the exchange rates and inflation compared to dollar remains assumable, and regulatory changes, like in Chile and Perú, do not harm carrying out business in the country.’ Other GCs such as the group legal counsel of Urban Developers and Investors, agreed with the sentiments about their organisation’s plans too, ‘Urban Developers and Investors are actively looking for new potential projects in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia with the aim of extending our presence in the region.’
Moreover, many general counsel interviewed confirmed that the context of the pandemic had given them unique challenges doing business in Latin America. The majority of interviews were characterised by GC’s innovative solutions to handling the gravity of the effects of the pandemic on the region, such as contractual shielding to protect their organisations. Succinctly put by David Burger, the legal department manager of GAM, ‘our strategy consists of inorganic growth taking advantage of the global market situation, focusing our operational growth on businesses without capex, especially the distribution, maintenance and training line of business and limiting our exposure to risk through contractual shielding of our commercial relationships.’
Despite the political and economic volatility that countries in Latin America experience, GCs in this edition of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist Spain: Latin America Specialists 2022 remain committed to leading their companies through hefty investments into the region. The relationship between Spain and Latin America remains fertile, with efforts being directed to increasing hiring efforts and interest in incorporating support from local companies. In the words of the director of legal advice and internal audit of CAPSA, Manual Morales Zapata, ‘We consider the LaAm market of maximum interest. We intend to continue the existing operations with the same clients and interlocutors, whom we already know, and to go little by little to increase the market.’
Summarily, these interviews conducted allowed for a brilliant and sound publication which sheds light on challenges in doing business in Latin America, pioneering solutions to these challenges and focuses on the historic relationship between the Latin American region and Spain.
We are glad to have such an esteemed list of leading legal professionals actively participating in this publication. It was such a pleasure to hear their highlights in their line of work and encapsulate their motivation in this publication. Tonight, they join hundreds of legal professionals globally located, in being recognised as Latin America Specialists in Spain and beyond. Congratulations to all the brilliant, innovative leading in-house counsel of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist Spain: Latin America Specialists 2022!
Melissa Yebisi| Research Analyst
The Legal 500 returned to Tokyo for a timely and extremely informative roundtable discussion alongside Jones Day on the future impact of carbon markets on the drive towards net zero in Asia and Japan. Tokyo-based Jones Day lawyers Ming-Yee Lin and Lukas Kratochvil were joined by the specialists who had flown in for the occasion: Paul Greening from the Singapore office, Dickson Chin of New York and Dan Howard of Jones Day’s Brisbane offices. From the in-house legal side, we were delighted to welcome 20 of Tokyo’s top counsel, including those representing large multinational companies and Sogo Shosha, major Japanese-headquartered conglomerates.
Paul Greening and Dan Howard opened proceedings by giving a run down on different carbon market structures around APAC, highlighting which approaches have already come into force and which may be on the horizon in the future which could affect the Japanese market. Throughout, the point was emphasised that companies in Japan will be dealing with further regulation on their carbon emissions over time as the push towards cast-iron sustainability goals intensifies.
Lin and Kratochvil gave their perspective on the ground in Tokyo as to how their client base is reacting to sustainability measures and how their expertise can allow businesses to find creative solutions to issues they have encountered when enacting strategy.
Dickson Chin drove the conversation home with a comprehensive global rundown of how carbon markets have developed in both the United States and Europe. Managing to provide both a detailed instruction on sophisticated financial instruments and practical strategies for deals, this section of the conversation was particularly remarked upon by those in attendance.
Networking and Q&A followed, with everyone in attendance being presented with an extensive information pack for them to refer to when explaining concepts to their business leaders.
The Legal 500 is delighted that we were able to have such an esteemed group of attendees at this hugely informative roundtable. We look forward to many more events in Tokyo in the future.
