David Devesa is the co-founder and CEO. Devesa and Calvo, Law firm originating in Alicante and specializing in labor law on a national scale. Devesa founded his firm in 2007 after working for several years as a commercial lawyer at the North American multinational PWC, and his firm now has offices in Alicante, Madrid and Valencia and a constantly expanding team of more than 26 professionals. . .
Devesa has a Law degree from UA and a Master’s degree in Business Legal Consultancy from Madrid IE. Independent board member at listed Facephi, construction company Llorca Group and Chocolates Marcos Toda. It started operating two years ago Dentol Capital, your family office, It invests or co-invests in different companies, which it helps to grow and finance, thanks to agreements with numerous investment funds. Among its most significant holdings are: Laminar Pharma, Marsi Bionics or Poseidon Hotels, among others. He was distinguished with the title of “Holy Alumni” by the University of Alicante in 2022, and also recently He was awarded the Lawyer of the Year award in Family Business Law by the International Best Lawyers directory.
Thank you very much. The most gratifying thing about this award from Best Lawyer is that we are the lawyers who choose the winners in each category through anonymous voting; like this I am so grateful to all my colleagues who voted for me, what an honor it is.
As for what is meant by family business; Those who own the majority of voting rights and capital are controlled by a family that, together with some of its members, also actively participates in the management or government of the company. If the company is listed on the stock exchange, the shareholding control requirement is set at 25% of the capital. This is the definition advocated by the Family Business Institute and has inspired all European legislation on the subject.
Certainly. The merger and coexistence of family and business presents a different set of challenges than non-family businesses. Management, ownership and family are three aspects of the organization that must be well combined to avoid disengagements and organizational conflicts. In this sense, it is essential to have a specifically designed family business protocol and the Family Council, the body responsible for supervising and arbitrating relations between family and business.
Moments of generational change are particularly critical; In Spain, only 7 out of every 100 companies reach the third generation. The Gordian knot in family business is succession, and the technique to solve it is called planning. One of the fundamental questions that the family protocol must resolve is how exactly to handle company succession. AND The main factor for things to go well is for the outgoing generation to actively participate alongside the incoming generation.; To avoid making the moment of succession traumatic, to calm morale and give the process more legitimacy.
He would also stand out as one of the great workhorses of the family business.the need for family members to have access to Board and management positions to prioritize merit and approved career criteria over purely emotional criteria or family ties. Mixing ownership and management without criteria, giving control of the ship to people who are objectively not qualified in this regard, leads to disastrous consequences for the family business. It is important that all members of the business family demonstrate humility and responsibility to avoid taking positions at a company outside their family’s company that are beyond their reach due to their experience and/or skills; Egos and individual interests cannot override what is best for the overall interests and future of the company.
Every business family is different, and here neither coffee for everyone nor “pega-breakers” are worth it, because otherwise the family business protocol will be useless. But it is equally true that there are a number of fundamental questions that every good family business protocol must include: The formation and functioning of the Family Council, the requirements and processes for the inclusion and dismissal of family members in the affairs of the company, the way succession is handled As we mentioned before, Valuation of shares or subsidiaries in case of exit, status of the company in terms of whether third parties will become shareholders or not and another set of fundamental questions.
Subscribing to a family business protocol is a long process that requires a lot of communication between members of the business family; It means working hard to reach consensus on issues important to the company’s present and future. Therefore, the best time to start a business is when relations between business family members are friendly and fluid. If things are bad, if corporate conflict has already escalated, it is often too late for family business protocol. we must look for other mechanisms for full or partial separation of partners. Family business protocol is one way to prevent conflict, but when conflicts are already out of control, it’s often too late for it to work.