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

Our legal team works in a fully integrated way with the business, assisting in all the necessary legal steps, from the prospection of each project to the full operation of the enterprise, going through the entire implementation phase. In the last year, we have been working, simultaneously, on three large wind and photovoltaic projects, totalling more than 1.1 GW, enough energy to supply 500,000 homes. The work was challenging, with demands from the most diverse areas of law, such as land, tax, environmental, civil, and contractual, which must be met in a short time, in order to meet the implementation schedule. Regarding environmental licensing, we managed to do it in a more simplified format, which allowed us to anticipate the implementation schedule. Finally, we work to improve our wind turbine supply contracts, with the aim of avoiding or mitigating tax disputes that always arise when wind farms are built.

In addition to what we mentioned above regarding the greenfield renewable business environment, we also operate, within the scope of the corporate development segment, in several M&A transactions involving several business segments of the Neoenergia Group, such as the acquisition of assets from PEC Energia (renewables) and the OPA of Neoenergia Pernambuco (networks), the exchange of generation assets with Eletronorte held in 2023 (renewables) and purchase and sale of 50% of Neoenergia Transmission companies’ to GIC, together with an agreement for future Transmission Bids held in 2023.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

We work in a company that has well-defined purposes and values, and we will certainly seek external legal partners that are consistent with our understandings and values. In short, we seek to build an efficient, healthy, and affordable electric energy model, fully imbued with the SDGs and consistent with the highest ESG standards and requirements, within the general framework of respect for and protection of human rights, the social economy of market and ethical principles generally accepted within its scope of action. For us, partners who have that same feeling, that same tune, are the partners that we will work with. Our partners must be in line with our thinking, always seeking social commitment, preservation of the environment and climate change, strong corporate governance, in addition to having ethics, integrity and respect for the law.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

The main direction for a corporate lawyer to be successful today is to know the business in which you work in depth and be a versatile and transactional professional. It is not just about legal issues. In many cases, we can resolve issues without the need to litigate, through joint action with the business. For this, there must be synergy and trust between the areas, and the legal department must be seen as a part of the business.