Part of the overall multinational telecommunications group, Telefónica Business Solutions is a leading provider of a wide range of integrated communication solutions for the business-to-business market. Head of legal at the company since 2014, David Giner explains the extent of its operations: ‘We provide support to a €10bn business through affiliates and branches in 40 countries and with service reach in over 170 countries’.

Because of the senior position he holds and his experience throughout his time in the Group, Giner made a conscious effort to advance his management skills in 2006, certifying himself as an executive coach which his pays dividends to this day when effectively managing his legal function. In this regard, he implemented an online protocol in 2015 for the intake of legal work from internal clients, entirely designed by his legal team and built in-house as the previous informal system of handling ad-hoc requests from nearly 2,500 internal clients proved inefficient. He says this new system ‘allows us to focus on adding value to the overall deal and provide our strategic vision’.

He also ensures his direct reports sit on the company’s subcommittees to ensure legal has an early input on commercial decisions. Giner’s other major contribution in his current role is leading on significant agreements such as the 2015 the deal to build and manage the BRUSA submarine cable construction (a high capacity cable nearly 11,000 km in length, linking Rio de Janeiro with San Juan in Puerto Rico and Virginia Beach in the US). In the same year, he led on the inception and negotiation of the key legal terms for the contract to create the Marea subsea cable with Microsoft and Facebook as partners. More recently, in 2016 he led on the complex spin-off of all of the company’s submarine-cable and IP associated assets from its Latin American and European companies. Before taking his current position, Giner was head of business affairs for Telefónica Digital for two years, and prior to this he was head of commercial law for the parent company of the Telefónica Group from 2006 until 2012, holding general counsel positions for many companies within the Group. He joined Telefónica Group in 2002 as head of alliances and acquisitions, heading the acquisitions of operations in a number of countries to expand the footprint of the Group.

Between 1996 and 2000, Giner was associate and partner of the highly reputable Spanish law firms Bufete Armero and Uría & Menéndez. ‘Those years as external counsel were crucial for my subsequent in-house career’, he says.