Ana de Quintana, general counsel of Mercedes-Benz Iberia, leads the company’s legal function in Spain and Portugal with a leadership style shaped by her interactions with others: managers, colleagues, team members, and people outside the workplace. This learning process has resulted in a management style that grants autonomy, welcomes disagreement, and demands rigor, starting with herself. This approach is particularly relevant in a rapidly transforming sector where the legal team must understand the business and make agile decisions. “My goal is for the team not only to execute tasks, but also to understand the business, gain confidence, and feel responsible for the solutions they propose,” she says.
Your career has led you to head the legal department of Mercedes-Benz in Spain and Portugal. What experience in your career shaped your understanding of leadership?
I feel that my understanding of leadership has been built, above all, through people. I’ve learned from managers, colleagues, and team members, and also from people outside the workplace. From each of them, I’ve incorporated ways of listening, making decisions, building trust, and dealing with difficult situations, and over the years I believe that one develops their own unique way of leading.
Periods of change have also been particularly impactful for me. For a long time, I worked in the real estate sector, an environment that went through very different phases and forced me to rethink approaches that had previously seemed unquestionable. Later, my move to the automotive sector presented me with another profound transformation. These experiences taught me that leadership isn’t about always having all the answers, but about being able to adapt, stay the course, and help the team move forward even when the context changes. And also that, in those moments, managing a team well begins with knowing how to manage your own reactions, priorities, and doubts.
That learning is put to the test in a dual role: a General Counsel leads their team and, at the same time, advises the company’s management. How would you define your leadership style?
I like my team members to have autonomy and know they have my support. I try to create an environment where they can express a different opinion, discuss a strategy, or admit a mistake without fear. For me, trust means we can disagree openly and respectfully, knowing we’re working toward the best outcome. And I make sure there’s always a sense of humor, because it helps maintain perspective, especially during high-pressure situations.
At the same time, I’m demanding. The legal function has a significant impact on the company, and that requires rigor, preparation, and a strong sense of responsibility. I strive to ensure that this demand is clear and consistent, starting with myself. I like to explain the reasoning behind decisions, share context, and give everyone space to contribute their perspective. My goal is for the team not only to execute tasks but also to understand the business, gain confidence, and feel accountable for the solutions they propose.
The sector in which you exercise this leadership is undergoing a transformation marked by electrification, digitalization, and connected vehicles. How has this context changed your approach to leading the legal team?
I believe we can’t talk solely about the transformation of the automotive industry, but rather about a much broader change that affects each and every one of us. Technological advancements, digitalization, and economic and social shifts are altering both business models and the expectations of customers and employees. Everything is happening faster and with a much greater degree of interconnectedness.
In this context, the legal team can no longer operate solely as a function focused on reviewing technical issues or resolving routine tasks. We must understand the business, anticipate risks, and participate in the search for solutions from the outset. For me, being a business partner means precisely that: contributing legal expertise while remaining mindful of the realities in which it will be applied, and doing so with the agility that today’s companies demand. This requires adaptability, agility in decision-making, effective communication, continuous learning, and, of course, teamwork.
As the leader, my role is to help create the conditions for the team to work in this way: sharing information, prioritizing effectively, facilitating collaboration, and providing the confidence to make decisions. This transformation also requires us to accept that we won’t always have perfect precedents. Sometimes we’ll have to proceed judiciously, transparently explaining the risks and building the solution together with the business.
Added to this change is a structural peculiarity: the legal department of Mercedes-Benz Iberia operates within a global group and serves two markets with their own distinct realities. What does it require to lead a legal team across these two levels?
A significant part of my work involves bridging the gap between these two worlds. On the one hand, we need to explain the needs and specific circumstances of Spain and Portugal within a global organization. On the other, we must translate global decisions so they can be effectively implemented in our markets. It’s not simply a matter of translating a directive, but of understanding its purpose, assessing how it fits into each local context, and finding the best way to put it into practice.
Spain and Portugal share many elements, but they also have their own legal frameworks and market dynamics. Leading the legal function for both countries requires close collaboration with the local team and, at the same time, a broad view of the organization. For me, success lies in finding that balance: maintaining global consistency without losing sight of the local reality, and framing the specificities not as obstacles, but as essential information for making better decisions.
Artificial intelligence is being incorporated into all areas of companies and raises issues of responsibility, data, and regulatory compliance. What role should the head of the legal function play in the adoption of AI within the company?
I think it should take an active and, above all, practical role. I believe the best way to understand artificial intelligence is to use it: when you start incorporating it into your daily work, you understand much better both what it can contribute and its limitations.
Within the legal department, it can help us be more agile, better organize information, and dedicate more time to what truly adds value: judgment, experience, and the ability to understand a problem within its context. But to truly benefit from it, simply incorporating a tool isn’t enough; we also need to review how we work and learn to use it critically.
And for the rest of the company, I believe Legal needs to be an enabler. Naturally, we have to deal with issues like privacy, security, intellectual property, and human oversight, but our role shouldn’t be limited to identifying risks. We need to understand what the business wants to achieve and help find a responsible way to do it.
Ana de Quintana is a member of the jury for the Gala Nacional del Derecho – Legal Leadership Awards 2026?, which recognize excellence in marketing, communication, and business development within the legal sector. What does she expect to find in this year’s entries?
I hope to find nominations that offer something different and truly reflect how the legal profession is evolving. I am particularly interested in initiatives that arise from a specific need, have been implemented consistently, and can clearly explain what problem they aimed to solve, how they approached it, and what results they achieved. I look for authenticity, practicality, and a clear connection between the initiative and the value it provides.
Ana de Quintana situates the automotive transformation within a broader shift, one that is altering business models and expectations at an unprecedented pace and with unprecedented interconnectedness. Her response for the legal function involves being involved in decision-making from the outset and accepting that perfect precedents will not always exist—a weighty assertion in a profession that has made precedent its primary reference point. She applies the same principle to artificial intelligence, which she believes is best understood through its application, and positions the Legal department as a facilitator of the business, given its position between the global group and the Spanish and Portuguese markets, where local specificities contribute to better decision-making. On all these fronts, the General Counsel’s role is to move forward with sound judgment and explain the risks transparently.
