About

ULMA Construction has over 50 years of experience providing equipment for clients in the construction industry. The company’s in-house legal function, consisting of five team members and led by director of legal affairs Aitor Unanue, has made efforts at reorganisation over the last two years. Unanue describes the team’s strategy of ‘developing internal organisation, together with outsourcing of some services’ as being particularly worthy of note, as is the development ‘of the international taxation structure, especially regarding indirect taxation within Europe’. Unanue goes on to explain that the in-house team is organised along similar lines to a private practice firm: ‘Our “clients” are mainly the internal ones, other departments and our affiliates. We need to excel as if they were the clients of any law firm’. The team is well supplied with legal talent. Apart from Unanue, who created the team nine years ago, lawyer Isabel Sánchez is ‘in charge of all insolvency and collection procedures’, while secretary of the management board Elisabeth Igartua has been important in streamlining and rationalising internal procedures within the team. The team has significant influence at management level, with Unanue holding a position that allows real input from the legal department into company direction.