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

The Empark group is the leading carpark operator in Iberia and the fourth largest operator in Europe, with a strong presence in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Turkey. In the last year our legal team have been involved in very different and important projects for the growth, external and internal, of the company, of which I highlight.

M&A transactions regarding the acquisition and construction of car parks, as well as the acquistion of concessions through public tenders.

Implementation of the 1st procedure, in Portugal, of supervision on the public road (on-street) by a private company. This was a project that took more than 1 year and that required a huge involvement of the legal team.

Implementation of the compliance structure through the preparation of different policies, code of conduct, whistleblower channel, training and compliance portal.

Support to Empark legal department in Turkey.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change within their organisations?

In-house legal teams have a deep understanding of the business since we work closely with the management team and have a deep understanding of the company goals, operations, and challenges. This gives us unique insights into how legal issues intersect with the company’s overall strategy and makes us well placed to identity opportunities for change. Also, the in-house legal team is viewed as trusted advisors by its directors, management team and stakeholders, which gives us credibility and influence within the company and enables us to advocate for changes that can have a positive impact on the business. We are also responsible for ensuring that the company complies with all applicable laws and regulations, which gives us the possibility to identify areas where changes may be needed to improve compliance and to manage the risk. Since we work across different departments and functions, we know how different parts of the business interact and that allow us to identify opportunities for change that may not be apparent to others who work in more narrowly focused roles. The in-house legal teams are trained to identify and solve legal problems. This skillset can be applied to broader business challenges, making in-house legal teams well suited to drive changes within the companies. In summary, in-house legal teams, and its general counsel in particular, are more than “just lawyers”, they are legal and business advisors of the management team and often the “right arm” of the CEO along with the CFO. The combination of legal and business knowledge makes them a valuable asset to the management team and by leveraging their insights, influence, and expertise, in-house legal teams can help to drive positive changes within their organizations and contribute to long-term success.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Artificial intelligence is, in my opinion, by far the technological advancement that will impact our activity in the greatest way, since it can be used to automate tasks that are currently performed manually by lawyers, such as document review, contract management, legal research, and due diligences. AI will allow us to reduce the number of hours spent in administrative matters, so that we can use such time in more value-added work and in more complex legal limitations of the department’s budgets in terms of hiring in-house and external lawyers.

Data analytics can help in-house legal teams to analyse large amounts of data and extract information that will be useful for the preparation of legal opinions and legal decisions. In my opinion data analytics in particularly useful in areas such as compliance, risk management and litigation. Empark already has a data analysis team that support the executive committee and the risk and legal and compliance teams.