About

In a challenging market, the 60-strong legal department at Spanish construction company Sacyr has had to evolve as quickly in order to adapt to the different tests of the sector. ‘Our team has gone through a period of adjustment, due to certain changes in Sacyr’s legal department’, says Alfonso Aguirre Diaz-Guardamino, general director of business legal advice. ‘We are trying to consolidate the current team and strengthen internal synergies between its members’. The organisational chart currently has Aguirre as principal coordinator and requires continuous communication with lawyers both in Spain and abroad, and in particular with the legal heads of each department who give their opinion on certain issues. Aguirre says: ‘The key is in the good atmosphere generated between the different departments. And that is achieved only through effort and mutual help’. This culture of positivity implemented by Aguirre also incorporates a need to focus on productivity and efficiency, enabling the lawyers to act as a single unit that provides legal solutions to specific problems, from both a responsible and practical point of view. In 2016, the Sacyr team received acclaim for its involvement in different water and waste facility projects under public–private partnership schemes, as well as in the purchase of a mining company and the consolidation of certain companies. In addition, the legal team closed a number of national and cross-border M&A, financing and refinancing transactions and facilitated the company’s role in the completion of the Panama Canal, one of the most important projects for Sacyr in the last few years.