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PLMJ maintains its policy of sustained growth with the appointment of seven new partners

06/01/2016

The law firm PLMJ, which is the largest in Portugal, is pleased to announce the appointment of seven new partners. The new partners will play an important role in business development for the firm in Portugal and in pursuing its objectives of growth and international consolidation, with particular focus on Angola and Mozambique.

These appointments reflect PLMJ’s clear commitment to a policy of organic growth and to recognising the technical and human qualities and professional merit of its lawyers. To fulfil this commitment, and based on the excellence of the work done by the lawyers and their daily contribution to boosting PLMJ’s competitiveness and reputation in Portugal and internationally, the following lawyers have been made up to partner:

  • Rita Samoreno Gomes joins the banking, finance and restructuring litigation team;
  • Inês Pinto da Costa joins the private equity/M&A practice;
  • Diogo Duarte de Campos joins PLMJ’s Oporto office where his principal focus is public law;
  • Francisco Lino Dias joins the international projects team;
  • Sara Estima Martins joins the EU and competition law practice
  • Bruno Xavier de Pina heads the Angola Desk working in close cooperation with the GLA office in Angola/Luanda;
  • Miguel Spínola heads the Mozambique Desk working in close cooperation with the TTA office in Mozambique/Maputo

PLMJ managing partner, Luís Pais Antunes, reveals that “with these appointments, PLMJ has renewed its commitment to professional development and to valuing its lawyers. In doing this, we recognise their personal qualities and professional merit. We are also confident of the significant contribution they make to increasing our competitiveness, efficiency and quality in providing legal services. As PLMJ is a full-service law firm with national and international coverage, we are very pleased to appoint new partners in Oporto and Lisbon in areas as diverse as corporate/M&A, , public law, private equity, litigation, international projects, European and competition law, as well as in our Angola and Mozambique Desks. This is a clear reflection of our strategy to consolidate our international offices”.

PLMJ has been involved in the largest deals of the year, in very complex domestic and cross-border cases, demanding a team effort. This involved 20 lateral hires including: André Figueiredo, as head of the capital markets practice, of counsel Rui Soares Pereira (arbitration), Pedro Caetano Nunes (litigation), Pedro Vale Gonçalves (intellectual property) and Madalena Perestrelo de Oliveira (capital markets). It also involved internal promotions, represented here by the appointment of the seven new partners.

This is yet another step in the consolidation of the strategy of PLMJ which, over its almost 50-year history, has managed to build successive generations of teams that are unparalleled in the market. PLMJ has done this through a culture of organic growth complemented by a policy of lateral hirings of highly specialised leading professionals, with a clear focus on young and dynamic teams.

In appointing these new partners, PLMJ has consolidated its position as Portugal’s leading law firm, with a total of 270 lawyers including 56 partners, spread across 9 countries.

About our new partners

Rita Samoreno Gomes
Rita Samoreno Gomes earned her law degree from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She has extensive experience in banking and financial litigation, and represents a range of Portuguese and international banks and financial institutions in all types of disputes relating to banking and finance activity. These have included very high value cases and special cases with a reputational risk to the client. She represents a number of international clients in high-profile, complex litigation cases.

Main practice areas
Litigation, restructuring and financial litigation

Inês Pinto da Costa
Inês Pinto do Costa joined PLMJ in 2009. She has more than 15 years’ experience in the legal sector, particularly in project financing, including infrastructures, PPPs and renewable energy. Over recent years she has been involved in a number of project finance and structured financing operations Portugal and in Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as innumerable private equity operations in Portugal. She has advised on a range of projects including the construction of a brewery in Angola, the financing of the construction of a dam also in Angola and, more recently, the purchase of EFACEC Power Solutions by the Angolan company Winterfell. Inês Pinto da Costa has a law degree from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and an executive master’s in law and management.

 

Main practice areas
Corporate/M&A, private equity, projects and international projects

 

Diogo Duarte de Campos
Diogo Duarte Campos has extensive experience in public law, in matters related to projects, public tenders, construction, real estate and arbitration (as a lawyer and as an arbitrator). He has been involved in a number of major domestic and international deals, including Angola and Mozambique, among others, in the transport, housing and energy sectors. He has also advised on important financial rebalancing operations and on the (re)negotiation of public construction and concession contracts, including under the project finance model. More recently, he has been intensely involved in litigation with regulatory bodies, particularly in the financial sector. He has a master’s in public procurement focusing on PPPs and he lectures on various postgraduate courses and is the author of a number of articles on public law and public procurement.

 

Main practice areas
Arbitration, sports, public law, real estate and construction, projects and international projects

 

Francisco Lino Dias
Francisco Lino Dias earned his law degree from Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon and he has a postgraduate in management from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The new PLMJ partner has advised on numerous international and cross-border projects – representing institutional investors, investment funds and promoters – coordinating a number of real estate and corporate matters involving acquisitions and sale and leaseback, financing and private equity operations. He advises clients on corporate transactions and foreign investments, in particular, in projects for office buildings, shopping centres and retail parks, as well as tourism and residential real estate.

 

Main practice areas
Corporate/M&A, real estate and construction, projects and international projects

 

Sara Estima Martins
Sara Estima Martins joined PLMJ in 2002 and has worked as a lawyer in the European and competition law practice for more than 10 years. She has a law degree from the University of Coimbra and an LLM in European Union law from the College of Europe. The new PLMJ partner has vast experience in merger control, cases relating to restrictive practices and compliance programmes. She has represented numerous clients before the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Portuguese courts, as well as before the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The companies she has represented come from a wide range of sectors including agriculture, food products and financial services.

 

Main practice areas
European and competition law

 

Bruno Xavier de Pina
Bruno Xavier de Pina has more than 10 years’ experience in legal practice. He previously worked as a tax consultant at Deloitte. He has vast experience in leading foreign investment operations and international projects connected to Angola, including significant operations and industrial projects in a range of sectors. He is also experienced in advising on oil and gas sector deals and representing corporate groups connected to various sectors including aviation and telecommunications. The new partner heads PLMJ’s Angola Desk and works directly with GLA, PLMJ’s partner office in Angola. Bruno Xavier de Pina has a law degree from the University of Lisbon and a postgraduate in tax from ISEG – Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

 

Main practice areas
Exports and international trade

 

Miguel Spínola
Miguel Spínola has a law degree from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and joined PLMJ in 2009. He has 17 years’ experience in legal practice and vast experience advising clients on investing in Mozambique, where he is their key contact. As such, he is a specialist in advising in Mozambique and represents international clients in complex deals in a wide range of areas including corporate/M&A, energy and infrastructures. He has been involved in a number of international projects and deals linked to Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly in the oil and gas sector. He is also head of PLMJ’s Mozambique Desk and works directly with the team at TTA, PLMJ’s partner office in Mozambique. He is also a member of the board of the Portugal-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce.

 

Main practice areas
Foreign investment

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