Urbano Vitalino Advogados

ABOUT 

Managing Partners:
Urbano Vitalino Neto; Ricardo Thomazinho; Alexandre Gois; Ana Carolina Famá; Ana Sobral; André Granja; Antônio Dourado; Antônio Palma; Bruno Costa; Bruno Cunha; Bruno Régis; Bruno Souza; Carla Ferreira; Carlos Andrade; Carolina Pacini; Christiano Sobral; Cristina Franchi;Daniel Farias; Daniella Barrêtto; Delmar Siqueira; Elisa Ideli Silva; Fábio Cury; Germano Alves; Hermes de Assis; Hugo Neves; Ingrid Backes; Ivo Amaral; Izaías Bezerra; Leonardo Dias; Lorena Tavares; Luís Maranhão Neto; Luís Ribeiro; Luiz Felicio Jorge; Luiz Mário Guerra; Marcello Junqueira; Milena Rodrigues; Nagib Barakat; Nathalia Fernandes; Pedro Isaac; Renato Armoni; Renato Deák; Renê Koerner; Rennan Gouveia; Roberta Maroja; Sergio Bellangero; Silvia Rebello Monteiro; Vinícius Oliveira.

Number of lawyers: 855

FIRM OVERVIEW
With more than eight decades of experience and tradition, currently, Urbano Vitalino Advogados is the third largest full-service law firm in Brazil, with representation in thirteen capital cities and international operations in Latin America, the United States, Angola, Portugal and other European countries. With a corporate culture based on logistical efficiency and on attracting legal talents, it has two autonomous business units: Specialized and Litigation, represented by a team of more than 1,600 professionals experienced in all areas of business law. For more than a decade, it has been recognized by Great Place To Work as one of the best companies to work for and is among the best firms in Latin America, according to the English directory Chambers and Partners, besides being ranked by Leaders League and being considered one of the ten largest and most admired law firms in the country, according to the annual publication Análise Advocacia. Founded in 1937, Urbano Vitalino Advogados is a result of the passion for Law and its founder, Urbano Vitalino de Melo, who followed the path of his father, major Joaquim Vitalino. Throughout 85 years, the customized and assertive service to clients and the partners' diligent practice were the bases that resulted in the expansion of its practice throughout Brazil and to other countries, positioning the firm among the main Corporate Law firms in the country.

MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE 

Arbitration
Arbitration seeks to resolve conflicts of interest that concern available property rights by means of a private and impartial judge. The method has been increasingly employed by private companies and is usually a less costly, less bureaucratic, faster and equally safe way to settle the aforementioned conflicts. Our team works in:

• Drafting and negotiating arbitration and dispute resolution clauses, representing the interests of the client who wants to ensure the effectiveness of the arbitration procedure.
• Provision of arbitrators and mediators to solve disputes in a quick and safe manner.

And more.

Environmental
The issue of sustainability and environmental preservation is becoming increasingly relevant in national and international productive segments, making Environmental Law one of the legal fields that has evolved the most in recent decades. Therefore, the area has become increasingly strategic for Urbano Vitalino Advogados, which offers the following services:

• Guidance, organization and input on the documentation required for environmental licensing, with consultations, technical and legal opinions.
• Providing advice and monitoring of administrative proceedings in federal, state and municipal environmental agencies, especially in the negotiation and signing of terms of commitment and adjustment of conduct, as well as defense in lawsuits.
• Technical analysis and preparation of environmental studies.

Compliance and Corporate Ethics
The firm has a multidisciplinary team specialized in corporate ethics and compliance, with experience in the elaboration of best practices, internal investigations, and crisis management. In these areas, the following work is performed:

• Corporate governance advisory.
• Planning, monitoring, implementation and updating of compliance programs.
• Drafting of compliance program regulations and manuals.
• Guidance and assessment of the practices adopted by clients according to the Brazilian legislation of prevention and fight against corruption.

Real Estate
Urbano Vitalino Advogados has a team specialized in Real Estate Law, acting in large subdivision and real estate development companies. In this area, it provides the following services:

• Advice for the acquisition of urban and rural real estate, and management of leases, subdivision companies and developers.
• Legal support and advice on investments (either in real estate or equity) in real estate projects, subdivisions, condominiums, hotels, shopping centers, logistics warehouses, among others.
• Working in operations of purchase, sale, exchange, granting in payment, constitution of guarantees, construction, contracting, leasing, built to suit, leasing, partnership, real estate transfers resulting from corporate acts, among others.
• Legal due diligence of documents (during the negotiation phase) for assessing the compliance of real estate properties and assistance in the analysis and bring the real estate documentation into compliance.

Estate and Sucession Planning
The firm is always very creative in the context of estate and family planning structures, but also very conservative in relation to legal security. One of the starting points of the Wealth and Succession Planning practice is the immersion in the family's culture to evaluate, in an interdisciplinary way, all its legal needs in an individualized manner. It is important to conceive a long-term plan that involves defining the division of the estate or its management among the successors, implementing the necessary measures, and following up on them to reach the desired goal. Therefore, we have as differentials:

• A creative performance in succession and family planning structures, either for purposes and optimization of results, succession or management, ensuring legal security for the parties involved.
• Long-term planning to define the division of assets or their management among successors.
• Permanent contact with members of the families and with their collaborators (managers, accountants, etc.) to solve legal issues and solve doubts that arise in the process of planning implementation.

Infrastructure
The area of Public Law is traditional and has a historical importance at Urbano Vitalino Advogados. This area has evolved and is named as Infrastructure to better suit the market needs. Currently, our team operates in:

• The preparation and analysis of administrative contracts, opinions and technical notes for economic processes and reports.
• The resolution of demands, advisory or litigious, that involve the legal business of companies in general with the Public Administration.
• M&A advisory, due diligence in corporate and contractual matters.

Corporate Criminal Law
The Corporate Criminal Law team provides highly customized legal advice, acting in a specialized manner in complex consultancy and litigation matters, aiming at protecting the institutional reputation and ensuring the longevity of enterprises. It encompasses a wide variety of services, such as:

• Extremely customized legal counseling for acting in complex consultative and litigious issues.
• Monitoring of search and seizure procedures.
• Filing of private criminal actions.
• Acting for the prosecution assistance.
• Criminal defense in the police phase and before all judicial instances, aiming at protecting the institutional reputation and ensuring the longevity of the undertakings.
• Due diligence in criminal matters and compliance planning.

Digital Law 

Data protection and Privacy, Innovation and Intellectual Property
Urbano Vitalino Advogados has experience in providing the best solutions for clients in the area of Digital Law, with teams specialized in Data Protection and Privacy, Innovation and Intellectual Property. The expertise results in a preventive advisory work for companies in various sectors of the economy and for public institutions and the Third Sector in the challenges of the new economy and in the appropriateness to the requirements for compliance with the legislation that regulates the activities of personal data treatment. Our team is able to:

• Act in the structuring and implementation of General Data Protection Law (LGPD) compliance programs and Data Security and Protection programs.
• Develop compliance policies and programs
• Conduct privacy diagnosis and implement the recommendations of the diagnosis.
• Develop and review privacy and information security policies.
• Support startups and New Economy ventures.
• Assist retail companies, fintechs, healthtechs, cleantechs and lawtechs, focusing on Innovation Law.
• Work with New Economy/Industry 4.0 businesses, with issues such as Web 3.0, blockchain, artificial intelligence, open banking, cryptoactive, non-fungible tokens (Non-Fungible Tokens _ NFTs) and metaverse.

M&A and Corporate
The current modern and sophisticated business dynamics, influenced by more advanced and especially global economies, has made Urbano Vitalino Advogados has structured a specialized team prepared to serve medium and large enterprises that use the agglutination of operations, the acquisition of new businesses, and the diversification of investments as important competitiveness and growth strategies. Currently, the firm is operating to:

• Transform and restructure companies.
• Rearrange corporate capital.
• Acting in corporate disputes and in the amendment of articles of incorporation.
• Develop administrative procedures and analysis of contracts and instruments inherent to the company's daily operations.
• Provide assistance to startups, Venture Capital Funds, Private Equity Funds and companies in the process of acquisition or merger.

Tax
The Urbano Vitalino Advogados Tax Law area operates in a diversified and strategic way in planning, consulting, and tax, administrative, and judicial litigation. The following services are provided:

• Prevention through the interpretation and application of the Law to the concrete case.
• Defense of the client's interests in tax administrative procedures and lawsuits.
• Management of processes that involve taxes and the strategic planning of companies in the federal, state, and municipal spheres.
• Tax administration by means of systematic and direct performance in the flow of obtaining information, performing providences and dispatching throughout Brazil.
• Application of technical and operational capacity in the elaboration of tax planning, improving the business and corporate structure, and presenting new opportunities to improve the tax system.

Civil
The firm has extensive experience in defending large corporations, such as banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, educational groups, telephone, energy and retail companies, among others. The team is structured according to the profile of the company served, with a concept of excellence replicated nationally. Its operations include:

• Preventive action, aiming at risk reduction and provisioning, and representation of clients' interests in all Private Law courts.
• Drafting and negotiation of arbitration clauses and dispute resolution clauses.
• Customization of pleadings and defense strategies according to the specific needs of each client.
• Improvement of the client's image before the Judiciary.
• Management of cases before the higher courts.

Energy, Oil, Gas
Urbano Vitalino Advogados has a team specialized in the segments of generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization of energy, with know-how in both the operation and regulation of the sector. It offers the following services:

• Acting in the advisory and litigation spheres for agents of the electric sector (generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization).
• Conducting administrative proceedings before the electricity sector bodies (MME, Aneel, CCEE, state agencies, ANP, among others), including punitive and judicial proceedings of all levels of complexity.
• Assistance in highly complex regulatory issues involving grants, auctions, authorizations, uses, accesses, connections, charges, etc.
• Consulting services for businesses related to the acquisition of power plants, with emphasis on distributed generation.
• Preparation of documents; withdrawal of certificates; legal, economic and technical qualification; and assistance in the selection process for the concession of transmission lines and power substations.
• Assistance in the negotiation and sale environments in the free energy purchase market.

Consumer
Urbano Vitalino Advogados is prominently positioned in the main rankings of Consumer Law area, being recognized by major national players due to its ability to generate results through the specialization of its teams and the use of large volume of technology in its flows. In this area, it operates for:

• The resolution of conflicts in search of agreements and transactions, so as to ensure the speed and effectiveness of discussions, as well as the reduction of risks, provisioning and costs tied to the processes.
• The defense of institutions in cases of fraud and problems with the understanding of the most complex and recent products by the Judiciary Branch.
• Collection lawsuits and damages for unlawful acts involving consumer relations and contractual obligations, among other topics, especially for the financial, e-commerce, telephony and retail segments and for insurance companies and consumer goods industries.

Labor
The firm's Labor Law team acts in individual and collective issues, acting in the structuring of corporate business models, supporting companies with the following activities:

• Activities in individual and collective issues, acting in the structuring of corporate business models and performing the follow-up and operation in lawsuits in the first instance and in the higher courts.
• Operation in administrative and judicial litigation, before the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) and the Labor Public Ministry (MPT).
• Attending routine demands, acting as an extension of the legal department of large companies, in sensitive issues such as harassment and moral damage, and worker health and safety.
• Strategic analysis of legal scenarios and preventive consulting work.
• Mitigation of impacts of labor lawsuits involving large national and international companies.
• Consulting for developing people management policies and for adapting and reviewing procedures.

OTHER AREAS
Legal Auditing
Foreign Trade
Banking
Securitary
Competition
Credit Recovery
Family and Sucession
Internacional Contracts and Transactions
Elections

OFFICES
The office is known nationally and internationally through specialised publications, the office is prepared to work in all areas of business law, in the 5 regions of the country, having its own units in the following states.

LATIN AMERICA OFFICES  

Brazil
São Paulo (head office); Rio de Janeiro (RJ); Porto Alegre (RS); Recife (PE); Aracaju (SE); Belém (PA); Fortaleza (CE); João Pessoa (PB); Maceió (AL); Manaus (AM); Natal (RN); São Luís (MA); Salvador (BA).

INTERNATIONAL WORK
Internationally the firm operates in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Angola. The firm's professionals have solid international experience and communicate fluently in English, French and Spanish.

ABOUT

Managing Partners:

Urbano Vitalino Neto; Ricardo Thomazinho; Alexandre Gois; Ana Carolina Famá; Ana Sobral; André Granja; Antônio Dourado; Antônio Palma; Bruno Costa; Bruno Cunha; Bruno Régis; Bruno Souza; Carla Ferreira; Carlos Andrade; Carolina Pacini; Christiano Sobral; Cristina Franchi;Daniel Farias; Daniella Barrêtto; Delmar Siqueira; Elisa Ideli Silva; Fábio Cury; Germano Alves; Hermes de Assis; Hugo Neves; Ingrid Backes; Ivo Amaral; Izaías Bezerra; Leonardo Dias; Lorena Tavares; Luís Maranhão Neto; Luís Ribeiro; Luiz Felicio Jorge; Luiz Mário Guerra; Marcello Junqueira; Milena Rodrigues; Nagib Barakat; Nathalia Fernandes; Pedro Isaac; Renato Armoni; Renato Deák; Renê Koerner; Rennan Gouveia; Roberta Maroja; Sergio Bellangero; Silvia Rebello Monteiro; Vinícius Oliveira.

Number of lawyers: 855

FIRM OVERVIEW

With more than eight decades of experience and tradition, currently, Urbano Vitalino Advogados is the third largest full-service law firm in Brazil, with representation in thirteen capital cities and international operations in Latin America, the United States, Angola, Portugal and other European countries. With a corporate culture based on logistical efficiency and on attracting legal talents, it has two autonomous business units: Specialized and Litigation, represented by a team of more than 1,600 professionals experienced in all areas of business law. For more than a decade, it has been recognized by Great Place To Work as one of the best companies to work for and is among the best firms in Latin America, according to the English directory Chambers and Partners, besides being ranked by Leaders League and being considered one of the ten largest and most admired law firms in the country, according to the annual publication Análise Advocacia. Founded in 1937, Urbano Vitalino Advogados is a result of the passion for Law and its founder, Urbano Vitalino de Melo, who followed the path of his father, major Joaquim Vitalino. Throughout 85 years, the customized and assertive service to clients and the partners' diligent practice were the bases that resulted in the expansion of its practice throughout Brazil and to other countries, positioning the firm among the main Corporate Law firms in the country.

MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE

Arbitration

Arbitration seeks to resolve conflicts of interest that concern available property rights by means of a private and impartial judge. The method has been increasingly employed by private companies and is usually a less costly, less bureaucratic, faster and equally safe way to settle the aforementioned conflicts. Our team works in:

• Drafting and negotiating arbitration and dispute resolution clauses, representing the interests of the client who wants to ensure the effectiveness of the arbitration procedure.
• Provision of arbitrators and mediators to solve disputes in a quick and safe manner.

And more.

Environmental

The issue of sustainability and environmental preservation is becoming increasingly relevant in national and international productive segments, making Environmental Law one of the legal fields that has evolved the most in recent decades. Therefore, the area has become increasingly strategic for Urbano Vitalino Advogados, which offers the following services:

• Guidance, organization and input on the documentation required for environmental licensing, with consultations, technical and legal opinions.
• Providing advice and monitoring of administrative proceedings in federal, state and municipal environmental agencies, especially in the negotiation and signing of terms of commitment and adjustment of conduct, as well as defense in lawsuits.
• Technical analysis and preparation of environmental studies.

Compliance and Corporate Ethics

The firm has a multidisciplinary team specialized in corporate ethics and compliance, with experience in the elaboration of best practices, internal investigations, and crisis management. In these areas, the following work is performed:

• Corporate governance advisory.
• Planning, monitoring, implementation and updating of compliance programs.
• Drafting of compliance program regulations and manuals.
• Guidance and assessment of the practices adopted by clients according to the Brazilian legislation of prevention and fight against corruption.

Real Estate

Urbano Vitalino Advogados has a team specialized in Real Estate Law, acting in large subdivision and real estate development companies. In this area, it provides the following services:

• Advice for the acquisition of urban and rural real estate, and management of leases, subdivision companies and developers.
• Legal support and advice on investments (either in real estate or equity) in real estate projects, subdivisions, condominiums, hotels, shopping centers, logistics warehouses, among others.
• Working in operations of purchase, sale, exchange, granting in payment, constitution of guarantees, construction, contracting, leasing, built to suit, leasing, partnership, real estate transfers resulting from corporate acts, among others.
• Legal due diligence of documents (during the negotiation phase) for assessing the compliance of real estate properties and assistance in the analysis and bring the real estate documentation into compliance.

Estate and Sucession Planning

The firm is always very creative in the context of estate and family planning structures, but also very conservative in relation to legal security. One of the starting points of the Wealth and Succession Planning practice is the immersion in the family's culture to evaluate, in an interdisciplinary way, all its legal needs in an individualized manner. It is important to conceive a long-term plan that involves defining the division of the estate or its management among the successors, implementing the necessary measures, and following up on them to reach the desired goal. Therefore, we have as differentials:

• A creative performance in succession and family planning structures, either for purposes and optimization of results, succession or management, ensuring legal security for the parties involved.
• Long-term planning to define the division of assets or their management among successors.
• Permanent contact with members of the families and with their collaborators (managers, accountants, etc.) to solve legal issues and solve doubts that arise in the process of planning implementation.

Infrastructure

The area of Public Law is traditional and has a historical importance at Urbano Vitalino Advogados. This area has evolved and is named as Infrastructure to better suit the market needs. Currently, our team operates in:

• The preparation and analysis of administrative contracts, opinions and technical notes for economic processes and reports.
• The resolution of demands, advisory or litigious, that involve the legal business of companies in general with the Public Administration.
• M&A advisory, due diligence in corporate and contractual matters.

Corporate Criminal Law

The Corporate Criminal Law team provides highly customized legal advice, acting in a specialized manner in complex consultancy and litigation matters, aiming at protecting the institutional reputation and ensuring the longevity of enterprises. It encompasses a wide variety of services, such as:

• Extremely customized legal counseling for acting in complex consultative and litigious issues.
• Monitoring of search and seizure procedures.
• Filing of private criminal actions.
• Acting for the prosecution assistance.
• Criminal defense in the police phase and before all judicial instances, aiming at protecting the institutional reputation and ensuring the longevity of the undertakings.
• Due diligence in criminal matters and compliance planning.

Digital Law

Data protection and Privacy, Innovation and Intellectual Property

Urbano Vitalino Advogados has experience in providing the best solutions for clients in the area of Digital Law, with teams specialized in Data Protection and Privacy, Innovation and Intellectual Property. The expertise results in a preventive advisory work for companies in various sectors of the economy and for public institutions and the Third Sector in the challenges of the new economy and in the appropriateness to the requirements for compliance with the legislation that regulates the activities of personal data treatment. Our team is able to:

• Act in the structuring and implementation of General Data Protection Law (LGPD) compliance programs and Data Security and Protection programs.
• Develop compliance policies and programs
• Conduct privacy diagnosis and implement the recommendations of the diagnosis.
• Develop and review privacy and information security policies.
• Support startups and New Economy ventures.
• Assist retail companies, fintechs, healthtechs, cleantechs and lawtechs, focusing on Innovation Law.
• Work with New Economy/Industry 4.0 businesses, with issues such as Web 3.0, blockchain, artificial intelligence, open banking, cryptoactive, non-fungible tokens (Non-Fungible Tokens _ NFTs) and metaverse.

M&A and Corporate

The current modern and sophisticated business dynamics, influenced by more advanced and especially global economies, has made Urbano Vitalino Advogados has structured a specialized team prepared to serve medium and large enterprises that use the agglutination of operations, the acquisition of new businesses, and the diversification of investments as important competitiveness and growth strategies. Currently, the firm is operating to:

• Transform and restructure companies.
• Rearrange corporate capital.
• Acting in corporate disputes and in the amendment of articles of incorporation.
• Develop administrative procedures and analysis of contracts and instruments inherent to the company's daily operations.
• Provide assistance to startups, Venture Capital Funds, Private Equity Funds and companies in the process of acquisition or merger.

Tax

The Urbano Vitalino Advogados Tax Law area operates in a diversified and strategic way in planning, consulting, and tax, administrative, and judicial litigation. The following services are provided:

• Prevention through the interpretation and application of the Law to the concrete case.
• Defense of the client's interests in tax administrative procedures and lawsuits.
• Management of processes that involve taxes and the strategic planning of companies in the federal, state, and municipal spheres.
• Tax administration by means of systematic and direct performance in the flow of obtaining information, performing providences and dispatching throughout Brazil.
• Application of technical and operational capacity in the elaboration of tax planning, improving the business and corporate structure, and presenting new opportunities to improve the tax system.

Civil

The firm has extensive experience in defending large corporations, such as banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, educational groups, telephone, energy and retail companies, among others. The team is structured according to the profile of the company served, with a concept of excellence replicated nationally. Its operations include:

• Preventive action, aiming at risk reduction and provisioning, and representation of clients' interests in all Private Law courts.
• Drafting and negotiation of arbitration clauses and dispute resolution clauses.
• Customization of pleadings and defense strategies according to the specific needs of each client.
• Improvement of the client's image before the Judiciary.
• Management of cases before the higher courts.

Energy, Oil, Gas

Urbano Vitalino Advogados has a team specialized in the segments of generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization of energy, with know-how in both the operation and regulation of the sector. It offers the following services:

• Acting in the advisory and litigation spheres for agents of the electric sector (generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization).
• Conducting administrative proceedings before the electricity sector bodies (MME, Aneel, CCEE, state agencies, ANP, among others), including punitive and judicial proceedings of all levels of complexity.
• Assistance in highly complex regulatory issues involving grants, auctions, authorizations, uses, accesses, connections, charges, etc.
• Consulting services for businesses related to the acquisition of power plants, with emphasis on distributed generation.
• Preparation of documents; withdrawal of certificates; legal, economic and technical qualification; and assistance in the selection process for the concession of transmission lines and power substations.
• Assistance in the negotiation and sale environments in the free energy purchase market.

Consumer

Urbano Vitalino Advogados is prominently positioned in the main rankings of Consumer Law area, being recognized by major national players due to its ability to generate results through the specialization of its teams and the use of large volume of technology in its flows. In this area, it operates for:

• The resolution of conflicts in search of agreements and transactions, so as to ensure the speed and effectiveness of discussions, as well as the reduction of risks, provisioning and costs tied to the processes.
• The defense of institutions in cases of fraud and problems with the understanding of the most complex and recent products by the Judiciary Branch.
• Collection lawsuits and damages for unlawful acts involving consumer relations and contractual obligations, among other topics, especially for the financial, e-commerce, telephony and retail segments and for insurance companies and consumer goods industries.

Labor

The firm's Labor Law team acts in individual and collective issues, acting in the structuring of corporate business models, supporting companies with the following activities:

• Activities in individual and collective issues, acting in the structuring of corporate business models and performing the follow-up and operation in lawsuits in the first instance and in the higher courts.
• Operation in administrative and judicial litigation, before the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) and the Labor Public Ministry (MPT).
• Attending routine demands, acting as an extension of the legal department of large companies, in sensitive issues such as harassment and moral damage, and worker health and safety.
• Strategic analysis of legal scenarios and preventive consulting work.
• Mitigation of impacts of labor lawsuits involving large national and international companies.
• Consulting for developing people management policies and for adapting and reviewing procedures.

OTHER AREAS

Legal Auditing

Foreign Trade

Banking

Securitary

Competition

Credit Recovery

Family and Sucession

Internacional Contracts and Transactions

Elections

OFFICES

The office is known nationally and internationally through specialised publications, the office is prepared to work in all areas of business law, in the 5 regions of the country, having its own units in the following states.

LATIN AMERICA OFFICES

Brazil

São Paulo (head office); Rio de Janeiro (RJ); Porto Alegre (RS); Recife (PE); Aracaju (SE); Belém (PA); Fortaleza (CE); João Pessoa (PB); Maceió (AL); Manaus (AM); Natal (RN); São Luís (MA); Salvador (BA).

INTERNATIONAL WORK

Internationally the firm operates in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Angola. The firm's professionals have solid international experience and communicate fluently in English, French and Spanish.