Pilar Baltar Fillol (Lic&MD 05), Senior Partner at Roca Junyent and Member of the Executive Board of the WE Club

For our first edition of In&Out, a new section where we get to know alumni on both a professional and personal level, we spoke with Pilar Baltar Fillol.

IN

Helping people

For the last 15 years, Pilar has been responsible for providing legal advice to public- and private-sector companies, both in Spain and abroad, and supporting human resources managers in matters of personnel management. She also provides legal defence in all sorts of labour conflicts initiated by workers’ groups or their representatives. She also specialises in labour compliance matters.

What are your responsibilities at work?
I am a senior partner at Roca Junyent, where I specialise in all aspects of labour law: management advice, compliance, layoffs, individual dismissals, etc.

What qualities do you think are necessary to perform these functions?
Motivation and enthusiasm are essential, since this is a tricky branch of law that requires lots of involvement and hard work. Being good at public speaking and being eager to learn are also very important, since you constantly have to brush up your knowledge. You are always a student.

What’s the thing you enjoy the most about your job?
What I like best is being able to help people. Labour law deals with sensitive areas such as wages. You also have to understand people’s psychology: whether you are advising companies, executives or workers, you are performing social work. It is a branch of law that deals closely with people.

What challenges has the pandemic posed and how has it affected your everyday life?
The big challenge has been work-life balance: I have a young child and I am pregnant. Managing family life while dealing with labour procedures brought about by the pandemic has been complicated. Work life and personal life – finding a balance and teleworking have been the biggest challenges. I have also missed seeing people in person and being able to do more team-building. We are a cohesive team, but managing people and operations with different resources from what we are used to has been effective but complicated. I have found myself negotiating furloughs via Microsoft Teams, for example.

OUT

For gender equality

When not working, Pilar is a regular collaborator at universities. At Esade, she is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Esade Alumni WE Club, which works to advance gender equality across the board by connecting alumni who are interested in promoting balanced workplaces.

Why did you get involved in the Executive Board of the WE Club?
I’ve been involved in equality issues for many years. Even back when I was a student, I felt very identified with the issue of gender equality. It was my personal brand. In labour law, we touch on many issues related to equality and gender plans. Whenever I have been able to contribute to this issue, I have done so, for example through the Academy of European Law (ERA) and the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), and now through the WE Club, where there are people from a wide range of backgrounds. We try not to be exclusively a women’s club, but rather a diverse, cross-cutting club that involves men as well.

What objectives are you working towards?
The club has also been affected by the pandemic. We have had to adapt to the online format by offering webinars. We are collaborating with social and business organisations with a long track record of working for equality, in order to cover all areas. We are also considering developing mentoring plans.

What experiences do you think you can bring to this initiative?
I think I can contribute my knowledge of labour law, regulations and programmes such as the “Me Cuida” plan, as well as the new decree law on teleworking. We have to ensure that teleworking is implemented in an egalitarian manner and that flexibility does not end up harming women. That’s where I can make a contribution.

How can women’s empowerment be improved?
By believing that, as women, we can do anything we set our minds to. Sometimes we limit ourselves by adhering to stereotypes.