About

Rita Branquinho Lobo is the head of legal at Novabase, the Portuguese leader in the IT sector. The Novabase legal team handles legal work related to Novabase Group’s core business, ranging from IT contracts, IP, M&A, public and private procurement to employment. The team consists of four lawyers (including head of legal) and one paralegal, where Miguel Crespo handles corporate, private equity and private procurement matters in all areas of business; Inês Nabais deals with employment, social security and data protection issues; and Eduarda Costa, who has been with the team for nine years, is responsible for public procurement in all sectors and private procurement in financial sectors. Lobo was promoted to her current position by Novabase board of directors in June 2017, following the former general counsel’s departure in early 2017. After this major change, the legal team welcomed two new members and has dealt with a growing amount of work due to new compliance and risk assessments, keeping up with the business’s constant changes. Following the sale of Novabase’s IMS business to Vinci Energies at the beginning of 2016, the main concern of the legal team was to ensure the remaining areas of business – government, transportation and energy, financial services, telecommunications, and investment capital – could continue to receive adequate support. The team successfully assisted with the contract negotiations which set the conditions for the continued activity of one of the group companies as a preferred supplier of one of the major telecommunications providers in the world, a process that took nearly six months to complete in 2018. Novabase’s company motto is”simpler and happier”, and the legal team strives to keep it. According to Lobo, ‘our team is composed of outstanding and driving lawyers who seek to help the company while ascertaining risks are minimal. We have a cohesive and growingly successful team, and all lawyers are empowered to make decisions, backed by the head of legal under all circumstances. Reporting directly to the CFO, the Novabase legal team has a great capacity to work independently and has a say in the decision making process’.