Team size:  Ten

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?   

As Head of Legal at idealista, the leading real estate digital platform in Southern Europe, I have guided the company through challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the current housing crises in Spain and Portugal. I emphasise a legal function that is agile, proactive, and consistently aligned with the business strategy. 

My approach can be summarised as follows: (i) risk assessment and response – monitoring legislative changes in real time that impact our business, which is naturally exposed to heightened regulatory activity for digital platforms. This involves anticipating risks and providing swift and pragmatic responses to our stakeholders to mitigate vulnerabilities and safeguard idealista’s interests; (ii) alignment with business priorities – streamlining processes and supporting innovation during difficult times through automation, participation in business decision-making processes, and providing compliant solutions to new and unexplored situations; and (iii) cross-functional collaboration – ensuring the legal team’s participation and involvement from the inception and design of new initiatives to address uncharted situations. Fostering a culture of adaptability within the legal team ensures we remain a strategic partner to the business. 

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?   

I have had the privilege of leading, for a second time, one of the biggest M&A transactions in Southern Europe. During 2024, I have played a key role in the largest online transaction in Spain to date: the €2.9 billion acquisition of idealista by private equity fund Cinven. 

This complex deal involved coordinating multiple stakeholders, including our shareholders from the biggest private equity funds in the world, internal teams, external legal, financial and tax advisers, and regulatory authorities at both European and national levels in several jurisdictions, to ensure a smooth and successful outcome. My responsibilities included steering the legal due diligence process, negotiating critical agreements, liaising in the regulatory filings, and aligning the deal structure with regulatory requirements, all while safeguarding idealista’s operational and strategic interests. 

In parallel with this landmark transaction, I also recently led the legal aspects of our acquisition in December 2024 of the English company Portal47, operating under the brand Kyero. This deal will allow us to expand idealista’s presence in the international market, further solidifying our position as a leading digital real estate platform in Europe. 

These experiences have reinforced my ability to lead high-stakes transactions while driving value and supporting idealista’s business needs and market leadership. 

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?   

As part of a technology company, integrating technology into our legal processes was a natural progression. 

We developed an internal contract automation and management system, coupled with a zero-paper policy and the adoption of digital signature solutions. This shift streamlined the entire lifecycle of commercial contracts (in the thousands per month), significantly reducing turnaround times while promoting sustainability. 

We have also integrated generative artificial intelligence (AI) for specific tasks, under a secure environment, to enhance efficiency by drafting, translating, and summarising documents and managing routine tasks. The legal team is currently working on implementing AI legal agents to reduce the volume of repetitive, low-risk queries from other teams. 

To handle legal requests efficiently, we introduced a ticketing system to prioritise and track tasks, a system that also provides transparency, KPIs and data to evidence the legal team’s contribution to the business needs of 1,500 employees across different jurisdictions. 

By embracing technology, this has become our business-as-usual approach to enhance efficiency and reduce costs, while ensuring compliance and aligning with idealista’s business strategy and work culture.