Moira Guitart

Counsel - Head of Employment, Madrid

"With 30+ years' experience, I excel in complex employment issues and high-stakes board negotiations, always calm under pressure."

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Published works

Overview

Moira is a counsel and the head of the Employment department of Linklaters Madrid since she joined in May 2018, after heading the labour department of another international law firm for over 20 years. She has over 30 years of experience and advises leading corporations and financial institutions, including their boards, on their more challenging and sensitive contentious and non-contentious employment matters. She is specialised on collective dismissals, negotiation of collective agreements, outsourcing, crisis management, equality regulations, restructuring of companies from a labour point of view, domestic and international insolvencies, incentive plans, pension schemes, digital nomads and remote working arrangements, and general employment advice.

She is an expert in the negotiation and termination of board members and top executive contracts, financial entities remuneration rules, equality and compliance including the social side of ESG, and on the labour issues associated with mergers and acquisitions.

Work highlights
  • Several clients including, among others, Ceva Logistics, Gefco, FieldCore, Hydro, intu and CarNext: advising on their respective collective negotiation processes in the context of the implementation of furlough and restructuring schemes, collective conflicts as well as on judicial claims and other labour inspections.
  • Several clients including, among others, Nortegas, Ardian, Q-Energy, UBS and Lacrem: advising on board related matters such as contractual arrangements, amendment of terms, remuneration related issues, internal policies, drafting of short and long-term incentive arrangements and transactional agreements, among many others.
  • Several clients including, among others, General Mills, Blackline, Advanz Pharma, as well as some leading financial entities: advising on the contractual arrangements agreed with their employees and related to remote working, which allow them to work from remote location outside of corporate offices in the context of the approval of remote working regulations.
  • Grupo Base: advising on all employment matters in the context of the sale to Affinitas Spain of the Spanish companies owning and operating Colegio Base and Colegio Internacional Ausiàs March.
  • QSI, one of the world’s leading sports investment companies – and together with the International Padel Federation and the Professional Padel Association founder of Premier Padel – : advising on all employment matters in the context of the acquisition of the World Padel Tour business to Setpoint Events, owned by Damm.
  • Banco Sabadell: advising on all employment matters in the context of the sale of a majority stake (80%) in its merchant acquiring business - through Paycomet, S.L.- to Nexi SpA together with the execution of a long-term partnership for the marketing of acquiring products and services which will allow Banco Sabadell to obtain additional charges, subject to the fulfilment of certain targets linked to the volume of products and services referred to by Banco Sabadell and the resulting commission income.

Professional experience

Work highlights continued.
  • ArcelorMittal: advising on the potential acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Italpannelli S.R.L, facility located in Italy and Italpannelli S.A. located in Spain. We conducted the legal due diligence for the purpose of implementing the transaction.
  • Q-Energy: advising on the employment aspects of the €1bn sale of a renewable portfolio, with both photovoltaic and solar assets, of which 75MW are operational projects and 4GW are under development, to Verbund.
  • Solarpack: advising on the employment aspects of its acquisition of Solaer's 2.078 GW photovoltaic portfolio in Spain and Italy.
  • F2i and CAA among others: advising on the employment aspects of the acquisition from Villar Mir Energía of a wind farm portfolio in operation and under development together with the acquisition by F2i of a 40% stake in the Villar Mir Group electricity supply business.
  • Portobello: advising on the acquisition of Condis Supermercats from the Condal Family.
  • Fidentiis Gestión and Fidentiis Equities: advising on the employment aspects of the acquisition of 100% of the shares of the company.
  • SIX: advising on employment law aspects in the context of the public offer for Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, Sociedad Holding de Mercados y Sistemas Financieros, S.A. (“BME”). The combination of SIX and BME has created the third-largest exchange group in Europe and a top-10 player globally.

Education and qualifications

Moira holds a Degree in Law from Universidad CEU San Pablo and a Masters in Corporate Legal Advice from Asociación para el Progreso de la Dirección.

Published works

Moira contributes regularly to labour experts’ annual publication known as the “Anuario Laboral” of Wolters Kluwer, is a member of the European Employment Lawyers Association, of the Spanish Forum of Labour Lawyers (FORELAB) and of the national association of labour Lawyers (ASNALA) and of Women in a Legal World (WLW) and has participated in probono activities advising World Bank.