30% of Miranda´s partners to leave the firm

Six of Miranda Correia Amendoeira & Associados’ 20 partners are to leave the firm following a disagreement about “strategic issues”.

Three of the partners set to depart are on the firm´s board of directors – Rui Amendoeira, João Afonso Fialho and Paulo Trindade Costa. The other three partners understood to be leaving the firm are Samuel Almeida Fernandes, Rui Andrade and Raul Mota Cerveira.

It is unclear whether the six partners will stay together to start a new project. It is possible that some or all of the partners could make lateral moves to other firms – it is believed that some of the partners have been in conversations with at least one other Portuguese firm and one major global firm.

The origins of Miranda Correia Amendoeira & Associados’ can be traced back to 1987 when name partner Agostinho de Miranda returned to Portugal from the US (where he was in-house legal counsel with Chevron) to set up a legal practice in Lisbon.

Amendoeira and fellow name partner Rita Correia joined the firm in 1992. Amendoeira was managing partner from 2006 until 2014.

Earlier this year, the firm confirmed what it described as a “radical shake-up” of its management structure that involved the creation of a new governance model and the election of new executive members in order to “better reflect and react to the needs of a law firm now active on four continents”.

The changes, which took effect on 1 January 2015, meant the firm adopted a dual management structure consisting of a board of directors and supervisory board.

The new board of directors comprised seven members presided over by Rui Amendoeira.

Amendoeira said at the time: “This new structure sees each of the members of the board take on executive functions enabling a spread of responsibilities better suited to the management needs of a fast growing and expanding law firm.”

The members of the board were Rui Amendoeira, Rita Correia, Catarina Távora, João Afonso Fialho, Paulo Trindade Costa, Alberto Galhardo Simões and João Luís Traça.

In addition, the firm established a three-member supervisory board comprising Luís M. S. Oliveira, Paulo Pimenta and chaired by Agostinho Pereira de Miranda.