About

Formerly in house at Telemar Norte Leste, Adriano Marcelo Baptista has been general counsel at CELPE, the power concessionaire for the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, since 2005. ‘It’s an incredibly complex role’ notes Angelini Caraciolo De Faro & Gregório’s Bruno Caraciolo: ‘as sole electicity provider in the state, every company and every citizen is a client’. Despite this, he has reorganized the 23-strong department (12 of whom are lawyers), drastically reducing the company’s external legal expenditure and remodelling it into a strategic business partner that works in conjunction with other business units rather than just as ‘a reactive in-house team’. This has resulted in greater efficiencies: in 2013 alone the caseload was reduced by some 9000 cases (plus a further 2300 unfavourable preliminary injunctions), debt recovery increased R$5.3m and debt liability was cut by over R$22.7m. Insiders also note Baptista’s ‘outstanding management’ of a minority-shareholder litigation (the largest in the state), in which he successfully obtained the overturning an adverse preliminary ruling. His role includes all compliance issues and membership of the company’s crisis and ethics committees, and he has also participated in a number of State investigation committees. He demonstrates ‘all the necessary qualities’, notes Manzi Advogados’ Walter Manzi: ‘leadership, competence, commitment, loyalty, character and legal knowledge. It’s really very easy to deal with him due to his clarity and objectiveness’. As a result of his work instigating partnerships with the Pernambuco Courts of Justice (in order to run task forces aimed at reducing accrued liability and providing clarity on regulatory norms), Baptista was invited to attend a course on “The Legal System for Brazilian Judges” offered by the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of London; and in July 2013 he was appointed President of the Pernambuco bar association’s Comissão de Apoio à Advocacia Corporativa (CAAC).