Lourenço Vilhena de Freitas

Practice Areas

Public Law, litigation and arbitration, energy, environment, infrastructure, transport, regulated sectors, business and human rights.

Career

Partner. He is an expert in public law, particularly in infrastructures, concessions of public works and services, regulated sectors, energy and the environment, as well as in judicial reviews and arbitration (national and investment) relating to concessions and contracts, and to banking regulations; acts as arbitrator and member of selection panel for public law.

Lourenço Vilhena de Freitas has participated as a lawyer in various arbitration proceedings, some with an international component, particularly relating to public procurement. He has also acted as arbitrator in various arbitration proceedings relating to concession agreements and public procurement.

He has held several positions in the Portuguese government, including deputy secretary of state for Tax Affairs, deputy-substitute for the Cabinet Chief of the State Secretariat for Public Administration, and deputy state secretary for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

He was a member of the Portuguese government’s administrative reform committee (XVI Constitutional Government of Portugal). He advised on the legislative reform in the oil sector, the reform of the General Cultural Heritage Act in Portugal, and on the reform of judicial review in Guinea Bissau.

He was director of the research project on energy law of the Center for Research in Public Law at Universidade de Lisboa.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Portuguese Bar Association, he holds the association’s title of specialist in administrative law.

Member of the group of experts at UNSCAD (United Nations Security Council Affairs Division), and a member of Centro de Estudos Fiscais, the International Law Association, the Sociedade Portuguesa de Direito Internacional and the Associação Portuguesa de Direito Europeu.

Arbitrator at CAAD – Administrative Arbitration Center.

Publications

Public Procurement Government Contracts 2019 - Chambers Global Practice Guides. He is the author of several manuals, publications and articles on energy and public procurement.

Personal

He was vice-chair of the Arbitration and Litigation Resolution Center at Universidade de Lisboa.

He is an associate lecturer at Universidade de Lisboa and a guest lecturer at Universidade Lusíada and was an assistant professor at Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas and a lecturer of interdisciplinary legal practice (public law) at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

He has taught subjects including public procurement, administrative procedures, energy, urban planning, EU law, international law and constitutional law. He has also lectured on several master and postgraduate programs covering energy, public procurement and arbitration in Portugal and abroad at various faculties of law, including at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Maputo), Universidade José Eduardo dos Santos (Huambo), Universidade Mandume Ya Ndemufayo (Lubango), Faculdade de Direito de Bissau, Universidade do Mindelo, and Universidade Agostinho Neto (Luanda).