French multinational retail giant Carrefour is served in Spain by experienced general counsel Juan Riego Vila, who calls his move to the in-house realm and having to build a legal team from scratch within an enormous IBEX 25 company as ‘extraordinary’.

Emphasising the progressive and unrelenting rate at which he and his team provides support to such a notable business, Riego states he has assisted with ‘growing and adapting our structure to the evolution of the company and the business units’. He adds: ‘We’ve been trying to use all the legal tech solutions available to make our work faster and easier, from document management to automation or e-signature’. Riego had involvement in a complex merger between two IBEX 35 entities, which he calls a ‘big moment’ in his career from both a legal perspective as well as an operational one owing to the merger of the legal teams of each company. In those moments and ever since he has encountered highly interesting legal issues, growing teams and a very wide scope of activities and regulatory issues, which have helped him become the expert he is today.

Stating what he feels are the core characteristics of an effective in-house lawyer, Riego cites ‘passion, curiosity and [a] strong character that generates both confidence and influence. Passion and curiosity because you will go through good and not so good times and you have to be able to adapt to or even promote changes, and an in-house counsel has to have personality and a character strong enough to have and defend certain positions and interests that need the use of that influence’.