Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Alberto is the Regional Head of Corporate EMEA based in Madrid. He advises investment banks, private equity houses, other financial buyers and multinational corporates on public and private mergers and acquisitions, LBOs for private equity players, corporate restructuring, equity capital markets transactions and private commercial transactions on local and multi-jurisdictional deals and leads multidisciplinary cross-border teams to ensure the best outcomes in complex transactions.

Alejandra Romero

Alejandra is a senior associate in the real estate practice in the Madrid office. She advises both national and international clients on the acquisition of real estate assets (eg. hotels, office buildings, logistic warehouses and shopping centres), non-performing loans (NPLs) and real estate owned (REOs) portfolios. She has experience in sale and leaseback transactions, in drafting commercial lease agreements and she has comprehensive due diligence skills.

Alejandra Galdos

Alejandra is a partner in the litigation and arbitration practice in the Madrid office. She works with clients in insurance cover disputes and in civil and commercial litigation matters. She specializes in insurance and reinsurance disputes defending clients in the energy, engineering, and construction sectors. She has broad experience as well in product liability claims and environmental liability matters. She acts as an advocate before the Spanish civil and criminal courts and as counsel to mediation and arbitration. Alejandra has assisted policyholders and insurers in international disputes resolution matters with extensive experience in a wide variety of the Latin American jurisdictions. She has assisted in adapting into the Spanish market foreign policies in different types of underlying risks, from CAR/EAR policies to professional indemnity, cyber and contingency risks, product liability and recall policies, among others.

Álvaro Gross

Alvaro is real estate lawyer specialised in real estate transactions relating to a wide nature of assets as well as NPLs and real assets-backed corporate M&A transactions. He advises both national and international clients on the acquisition of real estate portfolios (shopping centres, office buildings, logistic warehouses and hotels) and non-performing loans (NPLs), as well as advising on refinancing and mortgage-backed securities transactions. He also has vast experience in commercial lease agreements, sale and leaseback transactions, joint venture agreements and other corporate transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions and private equity asset deals. He has reputed and comprehensive skills on leading due diligence teams and has participated in drafting legal opinions and giving general legal advice on licensing and planning matters.

Armando García-Mendoza

Armando is a partner and head of our Madrid finance practice with wide expertise in all kinds of structured finance transactions. He advises banks, debt funds, institutional lenders, alternative lenders, borrowers and sponsors on all type of structured finance transactions such as acquisition and leveraged finance, real estate finance, project finance, restructuring and refinancing transactions, with special focus in the private equity, energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors. In addition, Armando is highly experienced in working with our clients on multi-jurisdictional transactions, coordinating the advice provided by our lawyers in all involved jurisdictions and supervising the work produced by local counsels when required. During his career, he has been involved in some of the most relevant financing transactions in the Spanish market, as well as in the most significant restructuring and refinancing transactions. Moreover, he has very significant experience in advising in distress transactions, including the identification of potential issues as well as the legal structuring and the design of the work-out strategy of the transaction.

Beatriz del Rey

Beatriz is a Spanish partner in our London finance team. Beatriz specialises in Spanish portfolio acquisitions and distressed debt/assets transactions and related financings. She is an experienced advisor for leading financial institutions and international investors with extensive experience in structuring and advising on the acquisition, sale and cross-border financing of portfolios of Spanish secured and unsecured loans, real estate and other assets. Beatriz is also an expert in Spanish mortgage market negotiable instruments and securities.

Carmen Jara

Carmen is a Professional Support Consultant of the finance practice in the Madrid office with wide experience in all kind of structured finance transactions. She advises banks, financial entities, investment funds, alternative lenders, borrowers and sponsors on structuring and implementing all type of finance transactions, including acquisition and leveraged finance, real estate finance, project finance and restructuring and refinancing transactions, with special focus in the private equity, energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors. Additionally, she has also significant experience in advising in distress transactions and restructuring processes.

Eduardo Soler Tappa

Eduardo is the managing partner and head of litigation and arbitration of the Madrid office. He advises major corporations, energy companies and financial institutions on litigation and arbitration, with a special focus on the energy and financial services sectors.

Esther Lumbreras

Esther is an Of Counsel in the public law and environment practices in the Madrid office. She advises major corporations, global investment banks, equity sponsors, public entities and the public administration in relation to general public law (environment, public procurement, sanctions, public subsidies, expropriations, constitutional law, etc.), as well as litigation and arbitration matters related to the above within the regulated sectors, especially in energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, pharma and mining.

Henar González Durántez

Henar heads the competition and trade practice in the Madrid office. She has almost two decades of experience advising clients on business conduct and transactions to ensure compliance with EU and Spanish competition law. She regularly represents clients before competition authorities and courts with a special focus on dawn-raids, cartels cases and investigations on unfair practices and other abusive behaviour and has experience in securing merger approvals and state aid matters. Henar has worked in Brussels and was trained at the EU Commission, which has enabled her to offer a practical knowledge of the competition, legal and policy issues that clients most commonly face. She uses her business understanding to advise leading companies predominantly in the retail and consumer products sectors as well as in energy, digital markets, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, transport, banking and insurance.

Iria Calviño

Iria heads the public law, regulatory and environment practices in the Madrid office and also co-heads the ESG practice in EMEA, focusing specially on energy transition. She has in-depth experience in administrative and environmental law, advising a wide array of large corporations, investment banks, sponsors and public institutions on national and cross-border transactions in the regulated sectors (including energy, water, ports, telecoms, among others). She is also an expert on public procurement, project development, public assets and properties, permitting and administrative authorizations, as well as administrative (disciplinary proceedings, administrative appeals, administrative liability) and contentious administrative proceedings.

Jaime de San Román

Jaime is a partner in the litigation and arbitration practice in the Madrid office. He specialises in banking litigation and insolvency law. He also has wide experience in general civil litigation; advising clients in sanctioning proceedings before regulatory bodies (CNMV and the Bank of Spain); and in commercial and investment arbitration (SCC, ICC, CIADI and ICSID, among others).

Javier De Carvajal

Javier is a partner in the litigation and arbitration practice in the Madrid office, specialized in commercial dispute resolution and insolvency law. With more than 20 years of experience, he advises a wide range of clients in pre-contentious and contentious issues mainly in civil, commercial and company law matters, having acted before Spanish Tribunals of all instances and jurisdictions. He has broad experience in domestic and international arbitration proceedings, as well as with arbitration-related judicial proceedings, namely exequatur, injunctions and enforcement proceedings. He also specialises in pre/insolvency (bankruptcy) law and has acted in insolvency proceedings as counsel for the debtor and for the creditors, as well as for directors, shareholders and any other party related to the pre/insolvent company. He also participates in distressed-related transactions regarding productive units, distressed credits (NPLs portfolios and single names), special situations and real estate-backed debt investments. Additionally, he has experience in white-collar crime, compliance and re/insurance matters and his professional career is complemented by non-contentious work, including pre-litigation and pre-insolvency advice, negotiation of out-of-court settlements and rendering of opinions on a number of issues of civil, commercial, pre/insolvency, criminal and procedural law.

José Ramón Mourenza

José Ramón heads the energy regulatory advice in the Madrid office. He is a State Attorney and has extensive experience and an in-depth knowledge of Spanish public law, especially in the energy sector as he was former State Attorney General at the Secretariat of State for Energy (2010-2018) and, subsequently, at the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda. He coordinated for over 8 years all energy-related litigation against the Spanish government, acting in several ad hoc investment arbitrations related to the regulatory framework for renewable electricity producers on behalf of the Kingdom of Spain.

Leonie Timmers

Leonie is a senior associate specialising in ESG (environmental, social and governance) and sustainable financing in the Madrid office. She advises companies and funds on matters relating to sustainability reporting and due diligence, particularly pursuant to the SFDR, EU Taxonomy, CSRD, ISSB and CSDDD. She also advises on the review of external communications to analyse clients’ greenwashing and social-washing risk profiles and the development, implementation and maintenance of resilient ESG frameworks. Her other focus lies on sustainable and impact investing in illiquid asset classes and the implementation of the EU Sustainable Finance framework for funds and asset managers across Europe. Before moving to focus on ESG, Leonie was a finance lawyer advising lenders, borrowers, sponsors, ECAs and governments on structured finance transactions including project finance, acquisition finance and real estate finance in a variety of sectors, both in the Iberian market and in emerging markets. In the past decade, she has worked as external counsel in Latin America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe, giving her an insight into the cultural and business considerations faced by clients operating in these markets.

Marta Rey

Marta is a senior associate in the litigation and arbitration practice in the Madrid office, specialised in restructuring and insolvency. She has extensive experience in civil and trade proceedings, focusing on litigation, pre-insolvency and insolvency law, including advocacy before the Spanish Courts. Her practice includes advising both international and local companies and creditors (both financial and commercial) in insolvency proceedings, as well as filing mandatory insolvency petitions in the name of the creditors. Additionally, she advises in restructuring, refinancing transactions, and loan portfolio acquisitions.

Marta Esteban

Marta is an Of Counsel and heads the tax practice in the Madrid office. She advises large corporates, financial institutions and investment banks, as well as Spanish private equity and international funds on a broad range of national and international tax issues, although her practice focuses primarily on providing advice and structuring acquisitions/investments, reorganisations and transactions, as well as the tax aspects of financing and financial transactions.

Miguel Fraga

Miguel is a corporate partner specialised in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He advises industrial clients and investment funds, foreign and Spanish, in multijurisdictional and complex transactions and projects related to the energy and infrastructure sectors, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial agreements and project development, with a particular focus on power, renewables, oil & gas and energy transition. He is a member of the Latin America and Africa groups of the firm. In addition to his previous in-house experience in the energy sector, during 2015, Miguel was seconded to a multinational client in the oil&gas business.

Miguel García-Casas

Miguel is a dispute resolution lawyer, specialised in corporate crime & investigations, civil proceedings and complex arbitrations. He represents and defends major companies on difficult scenarios and complex litigation proceedings both in criminal and civil matters, including advocacy before the Spanish Courts. Additionally, he has a background on domestic and international arbitration proceedings. He has also wide expertise on the preparation of corporate defence protocols in the context of the Spanish Criminal Code, in corporate crime and investigations.

Nicolás Martín

Nicolás is a partner in the corporate, private capital and tax practices with more than 30 years of experience. He advises clients in domestic and cross-border transactions related to corporate matters, particularly mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and private equity. He also has extensive experience in restructuring and bankruptcy transactions. He has been a member of the firm's Global Board from July 2014 to April 2020.

Paulino Fajardo

Paulino is the Regional Head of Dispute Resolution for Europe, Middle East and Africa and specialises in international dispute resolution and crisis management. A skilled negotiator and legal strategist with over 30 years' experience in comparative law and different legal systems, Paulino advocates before civil and criminal courts and acts as mediator, arbitrator and counsel in complex international arbitrations. He has extensive experience advising clients on their most important strategic disputes in relation to financial and cyber-related crimes, product liability, political risk, corporate and commercial, disputes, and ESG-related conflicts, particularly in the areas of energy, construction, life sciences, aviation and reinsurance.

Pilar Carrasco

Pilar is a senior associate in the competition and trade practice in the Madrid office. She advises clients in a wide variety of Competition Law matters, mainly in investigations of cartels and abuses of a dominant position, in judicial appeals against the decisions of the competition authorities and in large merger control deals. She also provides preventative advice through the implementation of compliance programmes in competition law.

Sergio Cires

Sergio is a partner in our Madrid finance practice with wide experience in all kinds of structured finance transactions. He advises domestic and foreign banks, institutional and alternative lenders, private equity and debt funds, as well as borrowers, developers and sponsors on structuring and implementing all type of finance transactions, including acquisition and leveraged finance, project finance, real estate finance and restructuring and refinancing transactions, with special focus in the private equity, energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors. Additionally, he has also significant cross-border experience in Europe, United States and Latin America.

Tomás Díaz Mielenhausen

Tomás heads the real estate practice in the Madrid office. He has extensive and wide-ranging experience advising clients on corporate real estate matters, such as acquisition, disposal and financing of real estate assets (shopping centres and large retail areas, office buildings, logistic platforms, hotels, resorts, build-to-rent, build-to-sell, healthcare, senior living, student housing, co-living, outdoor living, data centres, agribusiness, large portfolios of assets and REOs, etc.) and companies operating in the real estate sector, primarily focused on private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and the industrial and banking sectors (forward purchase and forward funding agreements, sale and leaseback deals, major leasing, hotel management and hotel lease agreements, etc.). In addition, Tomás is experienced in advising on large construction and development schemes (including contracts based on FIDIC principles) and asset and property management advise during the whole holding period of a real estate asset.

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