About

Made up of 13 lawyers and legal trainees, Grupo Visabeira’s in-house legal team ensures in-depth support and advice on diverse and complex legal subjects, taking on an essential role within the management structure of the Portuguese multinational and multi-sectorial company. The legal team supports the organisations operations in 16 countries, covering a wide range of business sectors including telecommunications, energy, industrials, real estate and tourism. The team is led by the head of legal, Isabel Fernandes, who assumes a centralised legal function to oversee the whole team, national and internationally, reporting directly to Grupo Visabeira’s board of directors. Recently, the legal team has been central to the acquisition of Italian company leme, which operates in the construction, installation and maintenance of power supply infrastructures, for medium and low voltage networks. This acquisition has initiated the expansion of Visabeira’s business activities to the Italian market and given the opportunity to consolidate the existent contracts for the energy sector and address new business areas. The legal team has also supported the planning, project and construction of optical fibre network in India, with 3,500km of length through the newly Indian incorporated joint venture with Birla Group, a project valued at €20m, which will connect 800 mobile network stations operated by different companies at West Bengal Calcutta and Orissa Bhubaneswar locations. Acquisitions aside, the legal team consistently endeavours to add value and produces high-quality solutions for the business: ‘Our function is no longer limited to managing the legal risk associated with the business we work with, rather than partner with the business, understand its issues and produce viable and tangible solutions’, says Fernandes. The legal team has developed genuine business insight by always assessing and understanding the way projects are operated as well as the strategy and main objectives of the business, effectively communicating the risks and legal issues involved in any decision.