Javier Vives assumed his current position as the legal affairs director of Ford Spain in November 2015, becoming responsible for all legal matters of the business in Portugal. In charge of a compact team of two lawyers and one paralegal, Vives deals with a plethora of legal matters (including distribution, suppliers, consumer, marketing and advertising, data protection and privacy, labour, public aid, administrative, compliance among others) across two countries.

Given a relatively small budget available, Vives has had to work hard to maximize efficiency. In this regard, Vives mentions his negotiations for fee arrangements with several law firms that his team has incorporated to a panel which his team works with in Spain on a regular basis for consultancy matters: ‘In Portugal, we have renegotiated our flat fee with the local law firm we use, seeking also more efficiency. In big projects and litigation we use different budgets that we request from business functions or separately,’ he adds.

‘In litigation with consumers we tend to use small law firms with good quality and low prices, while in big litigation cases we tend to use international or reputed Spanish law firms that can provide a good legal service for a reasonable price and, if required, multijurisdictional coverage’. Vives takes pride in the team-oriented culture in his legal department, which successfully leverages common resources to deal with competition, privacy and compliance matters.

To remain as efficient and nimble as possible, the department also works in close proximity with the legal team at Ford Credit on issues which affect both companies. At the same time, Vives’ team has been working hard to promote internal training to other business functions to prevent legal issues and to ensure a strong compliance culture. When asked about notable cases from his recent career, Vives mentions a litigation with a Portuguese Ford ex-dealer that sued Ford Portugal claiming tens of millions of euros. ‘We were able to reduce the compensations to be paid to a few hundreds of thousands of euros,’ he recalls. Another example involves a case against a former distressed Spanish supplier that was providing components and parts to eight plants of Ford worldwide.

Vives was requested to advise on Spanish legal matters in the cross functional and jurisdictional team until Ford was able to terminate the supply agreements and resource the same parts and components. Prior to assuming his current role, Vives spent seven years working as a legal affairs manager at Ford. Before that, Vives worked at Ford Credit in the UK and Spain.