Hafesa Group: Professionalising legal advice
The general counsel of the company that plans to become an electricity operator in 2024, Carlos Corredera, tells us how he is trying to bring a more professionalised vision to the legal department
by julia gil
Not all lawyers spend their careers in law firms. Many choose to work in the legal departments of different companies for all, or almost all, of their careers. A different way of looking at this profession and approaching their professional career. Carlos Corredera, currently general counsel at Grupo Hafesa, is a great example of how comfort and professionalism can be found within companies, which he defines as “a different way of managing legal matters and, above all, one’s own career”.
Throughout his career he has worked in large companies such as Acciona, in the position of legal director of the engineering and R&D department, and a brief period in the firm Lámbal Abogados, which has allowed him to accumulate experience, both nationally and internationally, in advising in the fields of energy, construction and engineering, participating in large projects with renowned multinationals.
After five months as legal director of Grupo Hafesa, Iberian Lawyer wanted to follow closely the work of the legal department in an energy company that is preparing to become an electricity operator in Spain.
Throughout your career, you have only worked for a very short period in a law firm, what was the reason for this?
I always opted for law firms because they were the ones that gave me the opportunity in the first place. The first one was at Abengoa, and from then on, I felt quite comfortable in the practice of law, which in the end has a different complexity and idiosyncrasy. I spent a year at the Lámbal law firm, when I returned from Mexico, specialising precisely in construction, energy, and engineering contracts, in which I have specialised for most of my career. But after the pandemic, they could not, let’s put it this way, maintain their quota of clients and could not support the costs, both mine and those of another colleague who had just joined. Nor have I had any general predilection in my career for going to law firms. That is true. In the end, it’s a different way of handling legal matters and, above all, the career itself. In the industry, corporate lawyers are seen more as managers than as 100% lawyers. There is a somewhat undervalued perception of our work.
What would you highlight about the current work of Grupo Hafesa’s legal department?
We are adapting the way of working of the legal department to what could be a slightly more professionalised vision in terms of the ways of working that are found in Ibex 35 companies or companies of an international nature, to give it precisely that push that I understand the department was lacking.
So, specifically, what does this imply?
It involves carrying out internal procedures, incorporating new colleagues, adapting to the new challenges in terms of the company’s business areas, or the new areas of growth that the group wants to focus on, such as electricity marketing.
How many people are working on these processes?
