News

The Partners’ Meeting of Garrigues, the largest firm in Continental Europe, based in Spain and Portugal, has resolved that Garrigues will request the Brazilian Bar Association (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil - OAB) the authorization to operate as a foreign law firm in Brazil.

The Partners’ Meeting also approved the association with the prestigious Brazilian firm Schmidt, Valois, Miranda, Ferreira & Agel - Advogados (SVMFA). 

Both decisions are part of Garrigues’ strategic plan to expand and consolidate its presence in Latin America, a plan which commenced in 2004 with the creation of the Affinitas Alliance through which it operates in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. This strategic bet on Brazil is based on the excellent growth prospects of the country, which is already one of the leading world economies.

Fernando Vives and Ricardo Gómez, the managing partners of Garrigues, stated that “this association guarantees the rendering of services of the highest technical quality in Brazil. The hard part was to find a firm in Brazil that shares Garrigues’ goals, priorities and vision of the legal market, which consist of a commitment to our professionals and rendering services of the utmost quality to our clients. Now we are sure that we have achieved this with SVMFA.” For their part, the managing partners of SVMFA assure that “the association with Garrigues will certainly open a window of opportunities, particularly in the representation of Iberian companies operating in the Brazilian market.”

With the presence of Garrigues and the closing of the association with SVMFA, Garrigues will be able to provide integral legal advisory services to Garrigues clients operating in Brazil. And this association will also provide SVMFA’s clients access to Garrigues’ extensive Iberian and international network.
SVMFA is a leading firm in Brazil in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, M&A and project finance. It has over 30 lawyers, 5 of whom are founding partners, with large experience in the representation of domestic and international clients in Brazil and other Latin America countries.

SVMFA and its partners are highly ranked by several reputed international publications, such as (i) the Chambers and Partners 2010 Latin America edition  in  Oil & Gas”, Mining”, Power”, “Corporate / M&A” and “Projects”;(ii) the 2010 Euromoney edition of the Expert Guides “The Best of the The Best” in “Energy and Natural Resources”; (iii) 2009 Who´s Who Legal in “Energy”; (iv) Latin Lawyer 250, 2010 edition, and other prestigious publications.