Barroso Fontelles, Barcellos, Mendonça & Associados

Brasília Team

The Brasília team handles approximately 400 cases before Brazil’s Higher Courts and the Court of Appeal of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT), in addition to around 200 cases referred by other BFBM offices upon reaching the superior courts. The Brasília office accounts for 50% of the firm’s total revenue.

The firm has consistently invested in the training and recruitment of lawyers, particularly in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro, and is frequently active before the country’s Higher Courts. This work includes a wide range of activities such as strategic litigation planning, monitoring and filing appeals and internal motions, acting as amicus curiae, handling complaints and matters under the original jurisdiction of the Higher Courts, constitutional remedies, preparation of legal briefs, and the tracking of leading cases, among others.

Expertise and Strengths

The teams are widely recognised for their ability to structure complex and strategic litigation and are particularly sought after by clients requiring expertise and agility before the Higher Courts.

The firm stands out for its work before the Higher Courts, especially the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the Labour Superior Court (TST), and the Federal Accounting Office (TCU).

Notable clients in this area include: Google, Itaú, Bradesco, BTG Pactual, Banrisul, Telefônica, Petrobras, Vibra, and SERASA.

Contact – Brasília

Address: SHIS QL 12, conjunto 05, casa 03 – Lago Sul – CEP 71630-255 – Brasília/DF

Phone: (61) 3409-1000

Email: [email protected]

Brazil: Industries and Sectors

Data Protection and Technology

Since its foundation in 2013, the firm has had a strong focus on Data Privacy, Digital Law and Internet Law—well before the enactment of the GDPR and Brazil’s LGPD—with Google as a key founding client, handling privacy and technology matters from the outset

Since then, other major tech companies such as Meta/Facebook, TikTok, Mercado Livre, Nubank, Uber, Buser, and numerous startups have joined the client portfolio. The firm has developed and invested in a team of more than 55 professionals with solid academic backgrounds and extensive practical experience in Privacy, Data Protection and Technology.

Team Composition

Founding partner Eduardo Mendonça leads over 300 sensitive Google cases involving court orders and user privacy matters. He is also Google’s lead external counsel before the STF and the STJ.

Expertise and Strengths

The team is recognised for its ability to develop complex and strategic solutions in the field of Privacy and Data Protection. It is particularly sought after by clients seeking bespoke advice and representation, both in advisory matters and litigation.

Clients include leading corporations such as Google, Meta/Facebook, TikTok, Itaú Unibanco, Nubank, and Telefônica.

Banks, technology and telecommunications companies turn to the firm to address complex privacy and technology issues, in both advisory and contentious matters. Clients particularly value the firm’s strong performance before the superior and constitutional courts, and its landmark victories in areas such as the right to be forgotten and platform liability. The legal briefs and opinions prepared by the team are known for their distinct constitutional approach.

Telecommunications

The team is recognised by key industry players for its ability to develop complex and strategic defences in telecommunications disputes. It is especially sought after by clients seeking a problem-solving approach, with strategies tailored to their business models, deep knowledge of sector regulation and procedural law, and the capacity to act in matters ranging from class actions to precedent-setting cases before the STF.

The team is also active in contract negotiations involving telecom agreements, licences, rights of use, rights-of-way charges, environmental licensing, land use and zoning, conduct adjustment agreements (TACs), and issues involving 4G and 5G technologies.

In partnership with industry unions and associations, the team formulates legal theses and counterarguments to systematically reshape jurisprudence, promoting greater efficiency and development within the sector.

Public Law

In the field of Public Law, BFBM acts both in extrajudicial matters and in administrative, public, and regulatory litigation. Its areas of expertise include:

• Public procurement and bidding procedures
• Administrative contracts
• Concessions, permissions, and authorisations
• Administrative impropriety
• Leniency agreements and settlements (TACs)
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs)
• Public asset concession and use
• Fiscal responsibility
• Review of administrative acts
• State intervention in the economy
• The Administration’s sanctioning powers
• Legislative procedures and regulatory issues

Team Composition

The department is composed of lawyers who also serve as prominent academics, frequently responsible for legal opinions on complex Public Law matters.

Expertise and Strengths

The team is recognised for its ability to provide complex and strategic consultancy in constitutional and public matters.

It is active in legislative drafting, preparation of bills, vetoesandexplanatory notes, participation in public hearings and consultations, and liaising directly with administrative and oversight bodies, regulatory agencies, the Federal Attorney General’s Office, and the General Accounting Office.

Highly specialised in Constitutional Law and Constitutional Procedure, the team stands out for its work before the Higher Courts, particularly the STF, and has established itself as a key player in constitutional debates at both state and federal levels.

In addition to overseeing regulatory acts, BFBM has extensive experience acting as amicus curiae and interested third parties. Its constitutional challenges are drafted with a high level of legal and procedural expertise by professionals who work directly with the Higher Courts.

BFBM Advogados in numbers

Executive Partners: Eduardo Mendonça, Felipe Fonte, Felipe Monnerat Solon de Pontes Rodrigues, Karin Khalili Dannemann, Rafael Barroso Fontelles, Thiago Magalhães Pires, Konstantinos Andreopoulos, Eduardo Nunez and André Zanatta

Managing Partner: Renata Saraiva

Number of partners: 18

Number of associates: 253

Offices: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília

Firm Overview

The firm was founded in 2013, to continue the legacy of Luis Roberto Barroso & Associados, which already had over 30 years in the Brazilian dispute resolution market.

All the lawyers at the firm have outstanding academic background and the team frequently tackles the most complex cases for its clients. The firm also provides volume litigation to certain strategic clients who have a large demand of disputes.

In line with legal and ethical standards that rule the practice of law, BFBM keeps an up to date compliance program, following all relevant legislation, to provide a safe working environment for professionals and clients.

The firm has four main purposes: Diversity (to be a plural workplace, with people from all backgrounds, religions, races and genders), Balance (to value the wellbeing of its people and achieve a healthy work-life balance), Solidarity (to offer Pro-Bono work to those who need help to access the judiciary); Innovation (to drive technological innovation within the firm and the legal sector).

Main Areas of Practice

Litigation

BFBM Advogados is a law firm with outstanding expertise in Litigation, exclusively focused on dispute resolution matters, being able to handle arbitration and litigation cases in both contentious and non-contentious matters. It furnishes advice on the full spectrum of dispute resolution issues and acts on both judicial and administrative proceedings .

Team Composition

The team is composed of highly specialized Partners and Associates that have vast experience in Litigation and academic credentials that range from Civil to Constitutional Law.

Specialities & Strengths

The team frequently tackles the most complex cases for its stellar clientele and provides volume litigation to certain strategic clients who have a large demand for disputes.

The group is well-known for its decisive presence in the High Courts of Brazil and is frequently sought after by clients when their proceedings reach such instance, after having been handled unsuccessfully by other law firms.

Consumer Law

In Consumer Law, they act on the side of companies and create defences of significant theses, avoiding precedents that could become an open gate for repetitive cases.

Team Composition

The team is composed of highly specialized Partners and Associates with vast experience in Consumer Law and academic credentials ranging from Constitutional Civil Law to Civil Procedure.

Partner Konstantinos or “Dino” as he is better known, used to be a Superintendent at Itaú, when he joined BFBM.

Specialities & Strengths

The team is well known for its skills in structuring complex and strategic defences in high-level litigation cases.

They are also frequently seen acting from contractual aspects to debates on civil liability and consumer rights to environmental licensing.

Labour

In Labour, they cover bargaining agreements and class actions in relation to both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Team Composition

The team is composed of highly specialized Partners and Associates that have vast experience in Labour and academic credentials that range from Labour to Civil Procedure.

Specialities & Strengths

The team is well known for its skills in structuring complex and strategic defences in high-level labour litigation cases and is specifically sought after by clients who require legal representation in important cases with theses that may impact the entire labour law market.

Industry sector strengths

The three main areas of industry sector expertise for the team are banking, telecommunications, and the internet. The team also represents clients from a wide range of sectors, including oil and gas, food and beverages, shopping centres, insurance, and entertainment.

With the booming expansion of the FinTech sector in Brazil and the group’s expertise on the internet and banking sectors, it was only natural that digital banks would seek to be advised by BFBM. C6 is a new digital bank in Brazil that is one of the firm’s new client wins.