Lawyer, legal and litigation office | ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal
Ana Isabel Rodrigues
Lawyer, legal and litigation office | ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal
Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?
I believe that, in response to this question, I must, right away, highlight the one that is my ability to study legal issues which, combined with my ability to articulate and legal reasoning, allows all the topics allocated to me to receive a very specific treatment. complete and critical. Based on this, I highlight my opinions on the issues raised by the different departments that, in general, dissect the applicable legislation in a structured way and present a critical and pragmatic vision for its concrete implementation.
I also highlight the monitoring of working groups for the development of projects within the company, involving meetings with colleagues from other structures or offices, providing my essential legal support for the perception of the legal framework of the company which, considering the pursuit of a public interest service, sometimes acts in public guises and other times in private law guises.
Combined with the good technical skills that I believe I have and for which I work every day to improve and encourage them, I always try to make the team look at me as an element that is there to add and help.
In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?
Capitalising on the specialties and qualities of each person, realizing and respecting their technical capacity and independence, ensuring that people feel that their work is supported by the company’s good results. A macro view of the resolution of legal issues, in order to anticipate and interconnect issues; training and encouragement of the teams for the exchange of ideas, for the importance of constant training and innovation, seeking to circumvent the excessive formatting of the teams; ability to work as a team, gaining awareness that, even when dealing with substantially different subjects, the final objective will always be common, that is, the enrichment and evolution of the structure.
What is the biggest risk to your industry and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?
In the aviation/airport management sector, I think that the major challenges are essentially centred on environmental performance, infrastructure and operation safety, continuous improvement in the passenger experience, among others.
The constant mutation of these parameters is, for me, a great challenge for airport managers. For my part, I understand that my preparation involves and will continue to involve constant and parallel monitoring of legislation in different matters, critically analysing it and giving the corresponding opinions on its implementation. I do not believe, however, that my contribution is exhausted in a purely legal perspective of the challenges, always trying to look in a comprehensive way also at the environment in which the Structure is inserted, because I believe that the law materializes, only and only, if looked at from a perspective of the surrounding reality.
What challenges have you overcome to get to the position you are in today?
Adopt a more objective and effective legal exposition; Know and follow the legislation and specific terminology of the sector; and being able to keep up with the high volatility of topics and the different degrees of urgency in dealing with issues.