The Brazilian Legal Profession
The Practice
September/October 2018
In the 1990s, major transformations shifted Brazil's political economy, leading to new laws governing corporate activity, and creating demand for new kinds of legal services.
September/October 2018
The Brazilian Legal Profession
In the 1990s emerging economies went through major transformations. Closed economies were opened, foreign investment encouraged, and many state-owned enterprises privatized. This lead story offers a broad overview of the corporate legal sector’s evolution in Brazil.
Calling All Corporate Lawyers
The Brazilian telecom sector in the first half of the twentieth century was fragmented. A cacophony of more than 900 distinct enterprises ran the country’s telecom services without the aid of strong sector-wide regulation or coordination to measure and maintain adequate service delivery. Starting from the late 1980s, this article chronicles key moments in which corporate lawyers engaged with the sector.
Bridges to Brazil
Foreign lawyers have been a fact of life in Brazil for more than a century. Before the 1960s, the regulation of foreign lawyers lacked focus and effect. By the close of the 20th century, both federal legislation and the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB), which regulates the Brazilian legal profession, had enacted far stricter rules governing the activity on foreign lawyers.
Investing in the Future
Founded in 1992, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. e Quiroga (“Mattos Filho”) was originally formed as a boutique tax firm by a small group of lawyers who departed the similarly named Mattos Filho & Suchodolski when their lopsided command of billings generated discontent among their former partners.
Operation Car Wash
Any comprehensive view of the state of the Brazilian legal profession needs to address the elephant in the room: the now-five-year-long investigation, known as Operação Lava Jato (“Operation Car Wash”), that has left the country’s political elite reeling.
A Brief History of Brazil's Legal Profession
From the creation of law courses in Brazil in the early 19th century to today, Brazil’s legal profession has gone through several major phases. This has occurred, as is natural, as a result of the different political and economic phases that the country has gone through since independence.
