About

With a key presence on the board of the company, Juan Riego Vila is the general counsel of the Spanish subsidiary of French retail giant Carrefour. In this role Riego leads an award winning team of 23 legal and non-legal professionals that are one of the most highly recommended in the Spanish market. Riego recently bolstered the already strong team by hiring several new lawyers from private practice to further fortify the capabilities of the in-house team. Creating and implementing new management tools and assisting on the ongoing execution of a transaction involving the acquisition of around 36 hypermarkets, which Riego explains is a ‘huge amount of work’ in addition to the teams’ normal activities, gives a picture of the immense scope covered by the team. The team also handles a complex web of regulatory matters; the company contends with Spain’s 17 regional sets of regulations in addition to the regulations at a national level. The challenge to Carrefour’s Spanish business by new market entrants as well as ecommerce companies means that the legal team’s work to safeguard operations is more important than ever. In order to positively affect this, the team participate in numerous committees to ensure the voice of the legal department is heard at all stages of the decision making process; Carrefour has numerous committees spanning areas such as real estate, expansion and commercial operations. The team culture is developed through a desire to be ‘quality driven’ and full of ‘ethical and good people’, and Carrefour in Spain can be confident that in the face of issues and problems the legal team can be relied upon; Riego explains that it is ‘very valuable knowing we do quality work and have a quality team’. Standout names within the team include Leonor Abel, who is head of the real estate legal team, and Jose Manuel Torres, who is the head of corporate and finance team that has seen a high volume of regulation changes in those areas.