Machado Associados - Advogados e Consultores

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Machado Associados Advogados e Consultores, founded as a tax boutique, now celebrates its 21st year as a leading firm with 22 partners and more than 85 highly qualified and experienced lawyers and trainees who assist clients not just in tax matters but in all major areas of business law.

Over the past decades, Machado Associados has consistently grown by expanding its team and diversifying its practices to meet clients’ needs. This growth has been based on the values set by the founding partner José Maurício Machado: a strong team, unconditional dedication to its clients and high quality services provided in a responsive and efficient manner.

Practice: Machado Associados provides high quality services within the main strategic areas of business law. The office has one of the largest tax teams in Brazil, with approximately 70 lawyers and trainees assigned in five areas: direct taxes; indirect taxes; tax litigation; international tax; and transfer pricing. In addition to this, the office has strong teams within the strategic areas of business: corporate, M&A, contracts, antitrust/competition (merger and conduct controls both in administrative and judicial levels), economic law litigation, international trade, administrative/regulatory, labour/social security and real estate. The different practice groups work in a coordinated and integrated fashion to cover different perspectives of legal issues faced by clients.

People: The Machado Associados’ professionals are firmly committed to providing top-quality advice and assisting clients to achieve their goals on a pragmatic and cost-effective basis. Several lawyers are also graduates in accounting, business administration and economics and/or have international academic and professional backgrounds, which enables a complete comprehension of all legal, financial and accounting aspects.

Clients: Machado Associados advises and represents Brazilian and foreign companies of all sizes and industries, including Fortune Global 500 multinationals, such as Alcoa, Dell, Ericsson, Fresenius, Ingram and Marubeni. Among other clients of the firm, we highlight C&A, Colgate Palmolive, Credit Suisse, Delphi, Eximbank India, FNAC, Goodyear, HCL, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi Aventis and SC Johnson.

The firm assists its clients in numerous cross-border transactions and inbound and outbound investments, and has helped national companies such as Natura, Camargo Corrêa, Andrade Gutierrez, Alpargatas, Sagatiba, Santista, etc, to expand their activities in Latin America, North America, Europe and Africa.

Machado Associados has also assisted leading global law firms in setting up their operations in Brazil and other legal matters, and has provided legal assistance and support to not-for-profit organisations such as the Rukha Institute whose main mission is eradicating child labour and protecting vulnerable children and adolescents.

Offices: Machado Associados’ head office is in São Paulo and in 2010 the firm opened an office in Brasilia to better support its litigation and antitrust practices. Due to the increasing demand of clients based in Rio de Janeiro, the firm started its practice in the city.

Alliances and networks: Machado Associados is one of the founders of LATAXNET, the Latin American Tax and Legal Network, formed by top-ranked law firms in Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean. Machado Associados has strong links with important law firms in the United States and Europe, which provide it with a more comprehensive and coordinated perspective of the issues related to international projects.

2011 developments: Machado Associados announced three new partners in 2011: Roberto Fleury, Fabíola Girão and Eduardo Molan Gaban who recorded outstanding results throughout time and well-deserved recognition from peers and clients in corporate/contracts, direct taxes and antitrust/competition, respectively.

The firm was very busy in 2011 with a significant number of M&A transactions, joint venture agreements, negotiation of commercial contracts, antitrust litigation and special projects on tax matters. Representative deals include the sale of Sagatiba to Campari, the acquisition of Terlogs Marine Terminal by Marubeni and representing Marfrig and Seara in challenging the Sadia-Perdigao merger, which was approved by the Brazilian competition authorities with significant restrictions.

Partners of the firm also took part as speakers/reporters at several important national international conferences, such as the annual meetings of the ABA (American Bar Association), IFA (International Fiscal Association), UIA (Union Internationale des Avocats), FIT (India Foundation for International Taxation) and IBDE’s (Brazilian Institute of Energy Studies) International Oil and Gas Forum.

www.machadoassociados.com.br