ICAM launches digital platform for in-house lawyers
The Madrid Bar Association (ICAM) has launched a specialized web portal dedicated to in-house lawyers, marking what the institution describes as the first resource of its kind in Spain. The platform, available at abogaciaempresa.icam.es, centralizes training, professional resources, professional secrecy protection, legal content and participation channels for corporate legal departments.
The initiative was announced during the first Afterwork of Corporate Legal Practice organized by ICAM, the past July 8th, which also served to present the outline of the III ICAM-ICAB Corporate Legal Meeting, scheduled for October 22-23 in Madrid under the theme “Adaptation, management and vision: the flight plan of corporate legal practice.”
Platform features and professional secrecy protections
Among the resources offered by the portal is a “device protection” system designed to safeguard the security of communications, together with a dedicated line addressing professional secrecy issues. The launch responds to what ICAM describes as “the need to recognize the strategic weight of in-house legal practice, reinforce professional secrecy protections and create a stable community for corporate counsel”.
Eugenio Ribón, dean of ICAM, emphasized the role of professional secrecy in the corporate context. “Professional secrecy is not a technicality. It is not a corporate matter. It is not a phrase we repeat by tradition. It is an essential guarantee of our profession”, he said, adding that this guarantee “does not disappear when the lawyer works inside a company.”
Ribón called for clear protection of confidentiality and technical independence for in-house lawyers, arguing both are essential for legal advice to be delivered with freedom, rigor and utility within organizations. “From ICAM we defend that professional secrecy, confidentiality and the technical independence of in-house legal practice must be clearly recognized and protected. Defending the professional secrecy of in-house lawyers means defending the profession. But it also means defending companies and legal certainty”, he added.
Ana Buitrago, the ICAM deputy responsible for corporate legal practice, stressed the need to adapt professional guarantees to the environments in which in-house lawyers actually operate today. “For an in-house lawyer, confidentiality is not confined to a file. It is in an email. In an internal meeting. In a presentation for a committee. In a preliminary report. In an urgent call. In a work chat. In a laptop. In a mobile phone. In a shared folder. In an internal investigation. In a recommendation that may prevent a bad decision”, she explained.
A gateway to the bar association
The new platform groups together information on training, conferences, congresses, legal resources, professional protection, professional secrecy, databases, regulations, the EU Law Observatory, the library and direct participation channels with the institution. “This platform is not just a website. We want it to be your gateway to ICAM”, Ribón said, inviting in-house professionals to participate actively in the bar association’s activities, put forward proposals, raise issues and share best practices.
The digital hub will allow in-house lawyers and legal departments to identify training and activities on topics including artificial intelligence applied to legal work, cybersecurity, internal investigations, professional secrecy, compliance, contracting, sustainability, corporate governance, data protection, corporate litigation, risk management, legal team leadership and transformation of the legal function. “Because the 21st-century in-house lawyer does not only need to know the law. They need to make the law count within the organization”, Buitrago summarized.
The new digital space also includes a participatory section called “The Voice of Corporate Legal Practice,” through which professionals can share their main concerns, priorities and emerging trends. “The most important part of this project is not the technology. It is the community it can help create,” Buitrago noted. Elia Esteban García-Aboal, co-chair of ICAM’s Corporate Legal Practice Section, highlighted the importance of this section as a direct communication channel with in-house professionals. “We want this space to be open to the queries, concerns and proposals of all in-house lawyers. The section must be built by actively listening to those who practice from within organizations and responding to their real needs,” she said.
III ICAM-ICAB Meeting
The Afterwork event also served to present the outline of the III ICAM-ICAB Corporate Legal Meeting, to be held on October 22-23 in Madrid. According to Mercedes Carmona, chair of ICAM’s Corporate Legal Practice Section, the meeting maintains the same philosophy the section wants to bring to all its activities: “high-value training, networking among professionals and strategic analysis of the major challenges affecting in-house legal practice”.
The program will bring together professionals from companies, law firms and institutions to address topics currently on the agenda of legal departments, including legaltech, AI, corporate governance, sustainability, the internal influence of in-house lawyers, new career paths, geopolitics, vendor management and the cultural transformation of legal advisory functions. Confirmed participants include representatives from Repsol, Iberdrola, Vodafone, ISDIN, ILUNION, Santander, Naturgy, Heineken, CaixaBank, CEOE, the Elcano Royal Institute, Lefebvre, PwC, Cuatrecasas, Fieldfisher and Vlex, among others.
