Sponsored thought leadership: Healthcare and pharmaceutical regulation in Portugal

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Sponsored thought leadership: Healthcare and pharmaceutical regulation in Portugal

The health sector in Portugal, which encompasses the pharmaceutical market, is a prominent and fast-evolving sector that has undergone significant growth in recent decades.

Sérvulo & Associados law firm is proud to have a highly specialised, experienced and well-balanced team in the life sciences field. The team covers all the main legal matters of the health and pharmaceutical industry, acting and providing guidance on a broad range of issues. These include patent trademark litigation within the pharmaceutical sector, but also advice on regulatory matters, data privacy for clinical research, and patient support programmers, as well as distribution and supply agreements to the industry. Continue reading “Sponsored thought leadership: Healthcare and pharmaceutical regulation in Portugal”

Sponsored Q&A: CTSU, a Deloitte Legal practice

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Sponsored Q&A: CTSU, a Deloitte Legal practice

1. What is your experience in banking and finance law in Portugal, and can you provide examples of cases or transactions you’ve handled?

The banking and finance team of CTSU, a Deloitte Legal Practice in Portugal, has extensive experience in supporting clients with transactions and to advise on governance and regulatory changes to their activity and internal organisation. Continue reading “Sponsored Q&A: CTSU, a Deloitte Legal practice”

Sponsored Firm profile: Vieira de Almeida

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Sponsored Firm profile: Vieira de Almeida

About VdA’s tax team

VdA’s tax practice has unique analytical abilities and is best known for structuring efficient innovative structures within a highly scrutinised and regulated environment, in every market where our clients operate. We are pragmatic and agile, working in cross-practice tailor-made teams that focus on the relevant demands of each matter and jurisdiction.

Our team steadily increased its involvement in the most relevant transactions taking place in the Portuguese-speaking markets or involving several jurisdictions, as well as in key cross-border transactions within the scope of VdA Legal Partners, comprising a wide range of sectors, particularly energy, financial sector (including banking, insurance, and asset management), real estate, infrastructure, healthcare, life sciences and information and communications technology.
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Hunting El Dorado – Iberian firms keep their eyes on prizes at home and abroad

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Hunting El Dorado – Iberian firms keep their eyes on prizes at home and abroad

A year ago, Spanish leader Garrigues unveiled its fifth office in Latin America, adding Chilean firm Avendaño Merino to its existing outposts in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. And, as the most expansive Iberian practice in the region, there is undoubtedly pressure to prove the strategy effective. Fortunately, Garrigues has seen startling 81% revenue growth to €18.6m in the region in the last 12 months and expects to generate €30m from Latin America in 2017.

Managing partner Fernando Vives Ruiz says the turning point was a tactical switch to offer a fully-integrated practice in Latin America rather than relying on best-friend alliances. It decided to go it alone in 2013 when it pulled the plug on its Latin American alliance, Affinitas, which it set up in 2004. Continue reading “Hunting El Dorado – Iberian firms keep their eyes on prizes at home and abroad”

Euro elite: focus Iberia – Pushing boundaries

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Dominant in their home markets, law firms from Spain and Portugal have weathered the tempest by heading for far-flung locations.

As the EU’s fifth-largest economy, Spain is home to two of Europe’s legal giants, Garrigues and Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira: between them they have more lawyers worldwide than Linklaters – 1,410 and 970 respectively. In dwarfing the local competition, their reach is also significant. Madrid-based Garrigues has 34 offices in 13 countries and its Barcelona opponent, Cuatrecasas, 25 offices in 11 countries.

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Portugal – A New Hope

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Portugal’s European bailout is over and its privatisation programme is winding down. Legal Business asks the country’s lawyers what happens next.

While the instances in which Europe’s ailing economies have been talking up their prospects have been as frequent as rain storms this past year, Portugal has more reason than most to be bullish. It exited the European Union (EU)/International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme at the end of last month; activity levels and employment figures are exceeding expectations; and the government aims to reduce the budget gap further in 2015.

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Outward Bound – Portugal lawyers turn to global opportunities

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Portugal continues to navigate a deep recession, aided by its legal profession. But while the sale of state assets is providing some relief, firms are looking to their international practices to provide a bailout of their own.

The normally sedate setting of the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon became the focal point of Portugal’s malaise in April. A flash mob of angry protestors gathered outside the hotel urging the Portuguese government to `screw the troika’ in response to the severe austerity plans tabled to meet the demands of Portugal’s 2011 €78bn bailout by the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission.

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Portugal – Getting Away

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In response to a struggling domestic market, Portugal’s leading law firms are increasingly seeking opportunities in former Portuguese colonies. LB assesses the different international strategies being employed by the country’s top legal practices

Aside from a spate of short-term privatisation work (see ‘Going private’), Portugal’s transactional lawyers continue to bemoan the demise of their national M&A pipelines. In order to bolster growth, the country’s major law firms are venturing to Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions where the legal systems are similar and investment is flowing.

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Portugal – Going Private

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Despite its worst recession in decades, Portugal’s recent privatisation programme has sparked renewed investment interest. LB asks whether selling off the country’s prized assets can cure the woes of its legal market

With Portugal’s GDP expected to fall by 4.5% in 2012 and a series of hikes on VAT, corporate and individual income tax included in the 2012 Portuguese state budget, the country’s economy hardly appears inviting. Following its 2011 €78bn bailout (the Troika Memorandum) by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Portugal has been forced to introduce a comprehensive privatisation programme that includes the energy and airports sectors, as well as the insurance and media industries.

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