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The Firm

About Us

Highly specialized team and core values
Our legal staff is highly trained, experienced and committed to keeping up with the latest development in law and practice and this is reflected in the quality of the legal solutions offered by Bermudes Advogados. Ethics and transparency are at the heart of our commitment to providing our clients with high quality consultancy services and representation before courts and arbitration tribunals.

The success of the firm and our members is reflected in our ranking in the major domestic and international law firm ratings.

Tradition and experience
We are proud to be considered one of the country's leading law firms, based on our five decades of service to clients from various economic sectors.

We act for several leading foreign and domestic corporations and conglomerates from the fields of finance, industry, commerce, energy, transport, media and communications, as well as public service concessionaires, foundations and associations. Our services cover legal and strategic advice, assistance and representation in judicial and arbitration proceed involving issues of Civil , Commercial, Bankruptcy and Restructure, Administrative, Regulatory, Insurance, Antitrust, Intellectual Property, Real Estate, Consumer, Environmental and Energy Law and others.

The firm also represents individual clients, notably local and national politicians and public figures, on issues of electoral law, copyright, privacy issues and others. Our lawyers are also frequently asked to provide expert legal opinions on complex issues of law and litigation practice.

Infrastructure
We have offices in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília and Belo Horizonte, staffed by approximately 120 partners and 150 legal personnel supported by a modern and efficient support team of around 200 people. We have correspondents in all major Brazilian cities and regions and partnerships with leading law firms abroad.

Continuous learning
Professional development is a core value of the firm. Most of our lawyers were interns at the firm and we encourage them to continue to develop their academic and professional skills. The firm actively supports members that wish to pursue specialist postgraduate training, in Brazil or abroad. Several of the partners teach part time at local universities and professional training bodies as part of the firm’s commitment to the education and training of future lawyers.

The firm has one of the largest law libraries in the country, with over 20 thousand Portuguese and foreign-language volumes.

Social Responsibility
Recognizing its role in society, in order to foster debate and ensure a fair and equal work environment that grants development opportunities and advancement to prominent positions for all, the firm created the SBA Mulher program, aimed at encouraging the presence and growth of women in the legal sector, and the SBA Social program, which carries the firm’s long history of assistance and pro bono activities for institutions, social projects, underprivileged populations, and minorities, in defense of fundamental democratic values.

The firm has been involved since its inception in the Projeto Incluir Direito, organized by CESA - Center for the Study of Law Firms, which aims to include black students in major law firms in the country.

We also support various cultural and social initiatives, such as sponsoring the OSB - Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1940 and considered one of the most important orchestras in the country.

Timeline

“It may be, as some believe, that October 25th, 1978 will be considered a landmark for justice in recent Brazilian history. If that does happen, then two 32-year lawyers, who completed their studies whilst the military repression (AI-5) was in full force and who are the lesser-known face of ‘Generation ‘68’, will be the cornerstone - judge Marcio José de Moraes, and litigator Sergio Bermudes”

Veja Magazine – report of the case of the journalist Vladimir Herzog – Vol. 530, November 1, 1978

The firm has, since its foundation in 1969, acted in major cases of national repercussion. The above report refers to a 1970’s lawsuit in which our founding partner, Sergio Bermudes, represented the widow of the political dissident Vladimir Herzog in an action which, for the first time in the history of the dictatorship, successfully challenged the military authorities before a court of law, forcing them to acknowledge that Herzog had been murdered whilst in their detention.

Since the 1980’s, the firm has been a leader in the field of civil litigation and corporate restructure, with a nationwide practice serving the needs of national and multinational clients.

The firm expanded rapidly in the early 1990’s as a result of the increasing demand for its services. The immediate consequence of this expansion in office structure was greater capacity to advise, assist and represent clients in arbitration and litigation matters in a broad range of matters including corporate and commercial issues, domestic and international contracts and regulatory issues in the field of energy, oil and gas, insurance, mining and others.

Currently, the firm Bermudes Advogados has a legal-administrative body of approximately 300 members, with offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília and Belo Horizonte, supported by an extensive network of correspondents in Brazil and abroad.