Portugal

Firm overview

Morais Leitão is a leading full-service law firm in Portugal, with a solid background of decades of experience. Broadly recognised, the Firm is a reference in several branches and sectors of the law on national and international level.

At Morais Leitão we have a substantial team of tax lawyers with a relevant experience in this area. Our clients include some of the largest national and foreign corporate groups, operating in a wide range of sectors, including industry, services and telecommunications, banking and financial services, securities and real estate investment funds and private equity funds, as well as medium and small companies, public institutions, foundations, non-governmental social support organizations and private clients.

Alongside the tax litigation, we also ensure the best integrated tax advice in relation to the most diverse operations, seeking to complement the tax analysis with an approach to the different relevant areas of law. Our expertise comprises tax planning in corporate restructuring operations, research and development activities, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, securitisation operations, structured finance operations, mortgage credit, debt issuance, derivatives, as well as specific tailored tax support within the scope of each client’s field of activity.

We also accompany inspection actions carried out by the Tax Authority, ensuring a thorough knowledge of the substantive law and a wide experience of legal assistance in the most diverse inspection procedures. In the area of tax litigation, we are proud on having a recognized team, which has sponsored some of the largest and most complex tax complaints and arbitration processes that have been trialed by our courts.

Due to its network of associations and alliances with local firms and the creation of the Morais Leitão Legal Circle in 2010, the firm can also offer support through offices in Angola (ALC Advogados), Cape Verde (VPQ Advogados), Mozambique (MDR Advogados) and Singapore.

Firm overview

With over 40 years of experience, Vieira de Almeida (VdA) is an international law firm noted for top-quality legal advice and cutting-edge innovation. A profound business know-how coupled with a highly specialised cross-sector legal practice enable the firm to effectively meet the increasingly complex challenges faced by clients. VdA offers robust solutions based on consistent standards of excellence, ethics and professionalism, and is acknowledged as a leading provider of legal services by the most reputed professional organisations, international publications and research institutions.

VdA has a highly specialized tax practice team with an in-depth knowledge of both the Portuguese and Portuguese speaking countries tax environment. The firm is known for playing the lead role in coordinating advisors in several jurisdictions thus providing clients with a full added-value service. The team advises both national and multinational economic groups, listed companies and other major corporations, financial institutions and investment funds operating in the Portuguese markets, including foundations and private equity investors and work closely with other practice areas across the firm, to offer efficient and creative tax solutions in all areas of business. VdA advises on tax optimization, international tax planning, tax structuring of mergers, spin-offs, acquisitions and restructurings, tax planning of financial transactions and products, property taxation and estate planning, fees, customs duties, value added tax and indirect taxes, tax disputes and litigation, and has a high degree of expertise in the field of transfer pricing – firm’s clients are major groups of companies operating in the local market.

For a comprehensive list of the services provided both internationally and in Portugal, please visit VdA’s website for more details: http://vda.pt/en

Firm overview

Durham Agrellos was founded in 2017, born of the aspiration to create a differentiated project of legal advice from its base in Portugal. We are specialized in tax law and private clients.

We place our experience at the service of our clients' needs, providing solid, innovative and creative legal solutions to particularly sensitive and complex matters.

We have adopted an institutional model of low leverage and high specialization, to ensure rigorous and personalized monitoring, guaranteeing that all hours dedicated to our clients result in effective value creation.

We believe that the solidity of the legal solutions we provide requires a constant effort to update and deepen our lawyers’ knowledge. That’s why we promote continuous training. The presence of our lawyers at the Academy reflects the genetic institutional value of our firm. We demand a culture of the utmost rigour, hard work and sense of duty.

Firm overview

Abreu Advogados is a big four independent law firm with over 30 years of experience in the Portuguese market, navigating in tomorrow´s sectors and industries. As a full service law firm, Abreu is recognized as the 11th fastest growing Portuguese firm by The Lawyer Euro 100, with 51% growth in 5 years.

With offices in Lisbon, Porto and Funchal, Abreu has provided highly effective solutions in areas such as Corporate/M&A, Tax, Litigation and Competition. The team holds a high degree of specialization in key industries for the Portuguese and African economies, such as Energy and Natural Resources, Real Estate, Banking, Technology, Life Sciences, Projects, Tourism and Hospitality.

Its clients consistently choose the firm to seize growth opportunities and to assist on increasingly complex international transactions whilst working with the most prestigious law firms in the world.

The firm´s successfully implemented strategy is to be disruptive and challenge the status quo. Considered a leading Tech firm in the Finance, Fintech and TMT areas, its teams have analyzed the consequences not yet addressed of corporate models, such as cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Abreu Advogados is a member of several Associations of international Lawyers, such as Consulegis, AIJA, UIA, CIArb, ABA, amongst other, providing Clients with the benefits of global service. Its international visibility has been strengthened through the relationship with Multilaw, which has allowed the firm to assist clients from various jurisdictions.

Abreu Advogados is committed to setting the future in progress.

ESG DNA:

Powered by tomorrow’s challenges

Embracing sustainability is part of the DNA of Abreu Advogados. This is its identity and has led the firm to assume an active commitment towards its culture and people.

Since 2015, Abreu Advogados is the only Law Firm in Portugal certified B Corp and understands its practice as a force for good. Abreu Advogados aims to serve as an example in the construction of a law firm that values, supports and promotes best practices at a social, economic and environmental level.

By certifying its quality management system under the European ISO 9001 standards, the firm became the first law firm in Portugal to do so and to subsequently publish a Sustainability Report. Abreu Advogados is also the first (and still the only) Portuguese law firm to publish a Sustainability Report under the directives issued by the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), to publish its accounts and to measure its carbon footprint.

Abreu Advogados is powered by tomorrow´s challenges and well positioned to advise its clients on ESG matters, advising companies from many different sectors, as well as public bodies and non-governmental organizations on all aspects related but not limited to environmental law, including environmental impact assessments, prior information procedures, and licensing and certification of economic activities, effluent management and waste management.

30 years of sustainable growth

For the past three decades, Abreu has led the way in creating long term partnerships with its clients and relied on diverse talent and expertise.Abreu's core is deeply non-conformist and fearless when diving into what are now the most innovative sectors and industries.

Being recognized by the successful and sustainable regulatory solutions it presents, on different sectors and jurisdictions, Abreu Advogados aims at the continuity of its clients businesses - which have been its biggest champions.

Its strength? Truly challenging and winning business models. By embracing consistency and bold strategies, Abreu has paved the way for the next thirty years in the legal sector, as a leading law firm in the Portuguese market.

Firm overview

TELLES is a Portuguese based law firm established 84-years ago, founded in Porto, where it is seen by other firms and peers in general as one of the most solid and reputable law firms. TELLES is a full-service law firm with offices in Lisbon and Oporto that has undergone an expansion strategy in the past years. From a 55-lawyer firm in 2015, the lawyer head count now stands at 22 partners and 98 lawyers, more or less equally divided between our two offices. With a client-oriented culture, TELLES is today one of the top-ten Portuguese law firms.

TELLES’s tax team is today one of the largest Portuguese teams with 5 tax partners and 12 lawyers. It has a track record in transactional tax, international taxation, indirect taxation, private wealth taxation and complex litigation, representing leading companies in some of the most significant pending tax litigation cases. TELLES’ tax team represents clients with an estimated amount of pending judicial and administrative litigation of around EUR 50 million.

TELLES’ tax practice has a wide client portfolio, some of them for more than 50 years, including blue-chip companies, international and Portuguese banks, multinational groups, mid-tier national champions and high-profile family offices. The tax team advises large Portuguese and multinational groups and can make output tax work in complex fields of tax such as debt work-out structures, cross-border business restructuring and acquisitions, private equity, international wealth planning and digital economy. We are today one of the largest tax teams in Portugal in what concerns private client and wealth management advisory.

Our top clients include banking and financial institutions, insurance companies, holding companies, venture capital and private equity management companies, industrial companies active in the textile, packaging, food and beverages, cable, paint and thermal insulation markets, as well as hundreds of private clients, including the wealthiest Portuguese and international families currently living in Portugal or seeking to relocate here.

Firm overview

The Garrigues Tax Department provides ongoing and bespoke advisory services on Portuguese and international taxation to Portuguese and foreign companies and to multinational groups and individuals.

Its umbrella structure, alongside the quality and experience of its team of professionals, means this practice is ideally placed to provide the solutions required by businesses today.