Reinforcing internal departments

In a high profile move, Miguel Klingenberg, a former Managing Partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Spain has joined Repsol SA as Deputy Secretary General.

Klingenberg spent 14 years at Freshfields and also headed the firm’s Tax Group, acting for clients that include Gas Natural, a company owned by Repsol.
This follows recent moves in-house including Uría Menéndez Corporate Partner, Javier Illescas, to Banco Santander as Head of Legal for Business Affairs. This comes after Santander split its legal department in two – business and internal legal affairs – and former Head of Legal, Jaime Pérez Renovales, took up the post of Under-Secretary for the Presidency. Illescas has also been named as one of the bank’s Senior Vice Presidents.
In-House Counsel say that companies are seeking to spend less on outsourcing to external law firms. While these recent notable moves could be seen as a way of reinforcing internal departments and bringing their outside counsel, inside, the likelihood is they are simply based on company reorganisations.