The innovative concept of legal services and organization of our Firm, intentionally conceived as being of medium sized dimension, and rendering such services either directly to multiple corporate clients or to other Law Firms, is fourfold. The Firm has a clear commitment and assumes overriding guiding principles of:
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Ensuring personalised partner legal services; |
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High level scientific approach to its main areas of speciality based on the solid academic track-record of its members that enables them to produce creative theoretical outputs in those areas; |
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Providing the benefits of global connections (worldwide) while keeping a flexible structure, based on local representatives and consultants in multiple jurisdictions, with a special focus to those that allow entering into Portuguese speaking countries or historically related with Portugal. These comprehend, namely, Brazil, in Latin America, Angola and Mozambique, in Africa, and China, through the gateway of Macau, which is, conversely, also used by China as a privileged way of accessing the international community of Portuguese speaking countries. |
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Privileged interdisciplinary approach, combining its core legal approach with an economic approach as it typically happens in its reference areas of expertise of competition law and economic regulation, but as it gradually and consistently happens in other areas. As such, the members of the Firm, are well equipped and especially oriented to interact with economic experts, either experts acting as external consultants of the Firm either acting on behalf of other professional organizations with whom the Firm establishes relationship for combined advisory work or other projects addressed to corporate clients, regulators or international or supranational organizations. |
On the whole, the Project underlying this Law Firm, highly specialised in competition law and economic regulation - although comprehending other key areas - is largely based on the track record and academic and scientific expertise in these fields of its founding members, namely of its founding Partner Luís Silva Morais, Professor of the Lisbon Law University (FDL), former Regulator - former member of the Board of the Portuguese Supervisory Authority of Insurance and Pension Funds (ISP) - Jean Monnet Chair in economic regulation, former Co-Director of Competition & Regulation Review (C&R) - based on a Protocol of Scientific Cooperation between the Institute of Economic Financial and Tax Law of Lisbon Law University and the Portuguese Competition Authority - winner of various awards in the area of competition law and short-listed GCR (Global Competition Review) Academic Excellency Award 2011.
This boutique Law Firm with a high international profile and focus, relies on key professional contacts with multiple entities in several EU Member States, the US and various Portuguese speaking countries (or historically related with Portugal), in Latin America (Brazil), Africa (Angola and Mozambique) and Asia/China (through the gateway of Macau).
It is largely anchored on the academic and research interests & network (internationally) of its Founding Partner, together with a team of attorneys who have in common academic or scientific affiliations to top universities or research centres, with a solid track-record on competition law, international trade law and economic regulation (e.g. of the financial sector, electronic communications, energy and pharmaceuticals and health sector) and EU law in general [including significant experience of litigation at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Court of First Instance (CFI) of Luxembourg].
In these areas the Firm also possesses a fundamental ability to understand and sort out legal issues pertaining to the functioning or EU institutions and adequate networking within those and related institutions, with a special emphasis on aspects relevant for the financial sector, arising, inter alia, from previous professional experiences of some of its members, e.g. at the legal department of the European Central Bank (ECB).
Beside those core, reference areas, in which the Firm purports to put forward creative and innovative solutions based on the original scientific production of its members, enabling clients with a decisive plus-value input for practical problems in such fields, the Firm - relying on the academic track-record of the Partners and of a significant network of permanent collaborators/consultants who teach in reference Law and Economics Schools in various Universities – also covers corporate law (take-overs, and mergers, restructuring transactions, spin-offs and split-offs), tax law, administrative law (especially in real estate area).
Finally, it also keeps a very special focus on employment law, arising not only from the academic profile of its members but also from the extensive past experience of some if its members as in-house lawyers, responsible for the human resources areas of multinational groups, of decisive importance in the current economic context of frequent restructuring of companies.
Luís Silva Morais - Founding Partner
Luís Silva Morais - Founding Partner
Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon (FDL) Doctor in Law (PhD) (2005);
Associate Professor FDL (EU Law, Competition Law, Economic Regulation, Economic Law in general);
Vice President of the Institute for University Cooperation of FDL;
Vice-President of ECSA Portugal (Association of European Studies integrated in the ECSA World Network related with the European Commission Jean Monnet Program), Jean Monnet CHAIR (July 2009) – attributed by the European Commission with a Project of Teaching and Research on EC Economic Regulation;
Founder and Head/Chairman of CIRSF - Research
Centre on Regulation and Supervision of the
Financial Sector (having as Scientific Partners the
Bank of Portugal and the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Fund Supervisory Authority);
Member of the Board of AIDA Portugal – Portuguese Section of International Association of Insurance Law, based in Lisbon Law University (since JULY – 2015)
Attorney at law - Admitted to the Portuguese Bar Association – 1990 (with extensive previous experience and track-record as of counsel and as
Partner of Lisbon based Law Firms, ensuring the responsibility for its competition, regulation or EU law departments);
Founder and managing Partner of the Consultancy Firm – “Luis D S Morais – Consultadoria e Formação, Lda”;
Former Co-Director of Competition & Regulation Review (founded in 2010 on the basis of a Project of Scientific Cooperation with the Portuguese Competition Authority);
Former Member of the Board of Directors (Member of the Executive Board) of the Portuguese Supervisory Authority of Insurance and Pension Funds (“Instituto de Seguros de Portugal”, currently “Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e de Fundos de Pensões – ASF”) (1998-2001);
Member of Economic and Financial Council of the Portuguese Ministry of Finance – holding the position of Vice-President of the Special Unit for Privatization of State-Owned Companies (2001-2011);
Chief of Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Treasury and Finance (XIII Constitutional Government – 1996-1998 – under Professor António Sousa Franco as then acting Minister of Finance of Portugal in a period that comprehended Portugal accession to the Euro area); Member of several Arbitral Courts (and appreciable experience as arbitrator);
NGA – Non Government Advisor at the ICN (International Competition Network); Member of several Ministerial Commissions which have prepared Draft proposals of legislation in the economic and financial fields;
Short-listed GCR (Global Competition Review) for the Academic Excellency Award 2011.
He has published extensively in the field of EU Law and, in particular, EU Competition Law, and also in the fields of economic and financial law in general and he is a frequent speaker in top conferences on EU law, competition and regulation, worldwide Recent Papers of his in English may be accessed through his Authors’s page of
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at
http://ssrn.com/author=1644131
