Garbois + Melo Advogados Associados

Managing Partner: Leonardo Melo

Senior Partners: Breno Garbois e Leonardo Melo

Number of partners: 4

Number of other fee-earners: 12

Firm Overview

Garbois Melo Advogados is a Brazilian law firm based in Rio de Janeiro, specialising in maritime law, tax law, and dispute resolution. Founded amidst the pandemic, their goal is to establish an efficient relationship with their clients, combining technical rigour, practicality, intelligence and creativity.

Their team is formed by experienced lawyers with a relevant background at major law firms. They are connected 24/7 and ready to assist clients either in their daily issues or in their biggest challenges, either in person or online. Partners are ranked amongst the best lawyers in their practice areas in Brazil by the most important legal guides, being recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise and excellence.

Main Areas of Practice

Shipping

The firm's shipping practice is led by partners Breno Garbois and Flavia Melo, both very competent lawyers recognised for their vast experience in the area. The team is ready to assist its clients in all legal matters related to shipping, such as:

■ Accidents and emergency response

■ Ship arrest and other emergency measures

■ Cargo claims

■ Private investigations and inquiries

■ Building, financing and acquisition of vessels or maritime units

■ Mortgages and securities

■ Registration and flag

■ Charter parties and carriage contracts

■ Crew

■ Tourism

■ Regulation

■ Litigation and arbitration

The shipping team has solid crisis management experience, being able to deal with the various authorities involved, lead private investigations, and represent clients in inquiries conducted by the Brazilian and foreign authorities.

Its clients’ list includes shipowners, charterers, carriers, maritime agents, cargo owners, service providers to the maritime and oil and gas industry, port operators, terminals, shipyards, insurance companies and financial institutions.

Tax

The tax law practice is led by partner Leonardo Melo, counting on a highly qualified and experienced team to assist clients on tax, customs, and social security matters, as follows:

Consultancy and planning

The tax consultancy and planning activities are focused on indicating all risk scenarios to provide clients with safe alternatives, despite the complexity and volatility of the Brazilian tax system.

Prevention

The tax team is focused on prevention through close collaboration with clients, by keeping clients updated on the potential impacts that frequent changes in legislation and precedents might cause to their businesses. The team is trained to advise clients from the start of inspection procedures, aiming at preventing infractions and reducing fines.

Litigation

On tax litigation, the team focuses on gathering evidence combined with a rigorous discussion of clients' rights.

Special services

The tax team is also ready to advise on special tax and customs regimes, such as Repetro; to assist in due-diligences and in obtaining compliance certificates; to review liabilities and instalment programs; to survey for credit recovery opportunities, etc.

Dispute Resolution

The Dispute Resolution practice counts on the experience of partner Clarissa Damiani in leadership, together with a team of multidisciplinary lawyers, specialized in solving disputes in an agile and efficient manner.

The team acts on complex civil litigation and arbitration to shipping, logistics, real estate, infrastructure and healthcare clients, and is also strong on corporate, environmental and strategic consumer litigation, acting in collective actions.

The dispute resolution team also provides transactional and pre-litigation advice to its clients, working with a transactional mindset balanced with the best cost-effective solution for its clients.

Garbois+Melo Advogados is a Brazilian law firm specializing in shipping, tax and dispute resolution.It was founded on April 2021 by partners Breno Garbois (Shipping), Clarissa Damiani (Dispute Resolution), Flavia Melo (Shipping) and Leonardo Melo (Tax).The partnership was then strengthened by the arrival of Fabio Gradel (Compliance), Cesar Chrisóstomo (Shipping) and Barbara Caffaro (Credit Recovery).

Over 80% of Garbois+Melo’s clients are ship owners, oil & gas companies, offshore service providers, ports, terminals, international traders and their insurers.Their clients include various industry stakeholders such as Starnav, Wilson Sons, Camorim, Baru, Elcano, SBM, Altera, Subsea7, Ocyan, Seadrill, Locar, Sistac, MSC, CMA CGM, Bravante and CBO, as well as traders such as Cargill, Raízen, Vibra and Amaggi, port terminals and shipyards, such as Movecta and Wilson Sons, as well as their insurers and P&I clubs such as Gard, NorthStandard, Steamship Mutual, Britannia, Shipowners, West, and Skuld.

The Shipping practice is led by Breno Garbois and Flavia Melo, both very experienced maritime law practitioners. Breno and Flavia are well regarded by the shipping community, and they have been ranked amongst the best shipping lawyers by Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, Leaders League and WWL Lexology for many years.In 2024, the team was reinforced by the arrival of partner Cesar Chrisóstomo, who specialises in wet shipping, with recognised expertise in pollution incidents and brown water matters.

The Shipping team counts also with other 8 exclusively dedicated lawyers that work with a wide range of maters, such as:

•Contracts: Shipbuilding, purchase and sale of vessels, mortgages, vessel registration and flagging, charter-parties, contracts of carriage, offshore services contracts, etc.

•Regulation consultancy and assistance to auditing related to norms issued by the Brazilian maritime authorities, administrative bodies, and agencies.

•General consultancy on civil, commercial, public, and international law matters involving shipping, ports and terminals, insurance, customs, international trade, oil & gas, energy, environment, health surveillance, etc.

•Emergency response, crisis management, and liaising with the several authorities involved, such as Port Captaincies, DPC, ANTAQ, IBAMA, ANP, Anvisa, Prosecution Services, among others. Assistance to accident investigations by the Brazilian and/or foreign authorities.

•Administrative litigation before the Port Captaincies, Admiralty Court, DPC, ANTAQ, ANP, Anvisa and IBAMA.

•Litigation and arbitration related to marine accidents with or without oil spill, cargo claims, passengers, crew, stevedores and/or third parties’ claims for damages; charter-party disputes, arrest of vessels, etc.

Managing Partner:Leonardo Melo

Number of partners: 4

Number of lawyers: 12

Firm Overview:

I. Main Practice Areas:

Garbois Melo Advogados is a law firm with outstanding expertise in tax matters. It is also strong in customs and social security issues as well as shipping law.

In Tax, they cover the full array of issues, in both contentious and non-contentious matters.

II. Team Composition:

The team is well known for its skills in structuring complex and strategic administrative defences and litigation discussions and is specifically sought after by clients who require notoriety in these practices.

The team has outstanding expertise in litigation matters and is frequently seen advising on ICMS, PIS COFINS and social security matters.

The firm aims for the team to have horizontal and vertical knowledge on certain themes so that each attorney has an area of more in-depth expertise.

III. Specialities & Strengths:

The team is well known for its skills in structuring complex and strategic tax defences and is specifically sought after by clients who require litigation work of quality before CARF and the superior courts.

In close synergy with its shipping department, the tax team is ready to advise on special tax and customs regimes.

IV. Industry sector strengths:

The bulk of our workload comes from the telecommunication, paper and pulp, sugar and alcohol, energy, shipping, logistics, food, and healthcare sectors.

V. International clients:

Our portfolio of international clients is remarkable and includes names from countries such as TheNetherlands, Switzerland, USA, and France.

VI. Recent Developments & Statistics:

The firm has recently broadened its scope of expertise by establishing two new departments: compliance and data protection. The latter specializes in addressing issues related to the General Personal Data Protection Law.