Speed of trust
Antas da Cunha Ecija has grown from seven to over 150 people in nine years. With a 45% revenue growth recorded in 2023, Iberian Lawyer interviewed Fernando Antas da Cunha, the managing partner responsible for this success.
by michael heron
The American business billionaire, Marc Benioff, once described trust as being the most valuable commodity in a business. “If it’s not, something bad is going to happen to you”, he said. Fernando Antas da Cunha has overseen arguably the fastest growth achieved by any start-up law firm in Portugal, during the last decade. Trust is the very definition of his firm’s culture. While it is true that every law firm leader talks about trusting their people, it might be a mistake to dismiss Antas da Cunha’s words at face value. The lawyer has clearly learned from the past. In 2003, he founded his first law firm, which in 2006 became ACFA (Antas da Cunha, Ferreira & Associados). Although ACFA was a small firm at the time, it had a solid reputation. It attracted the interest of Miranda in 2014, and Fernando Antas da Cunha and his team of seven joined the firm. The integration lasted just over a year. As several partners and lawyers left Miranda for VdA in the summer of 2015, Antas da Cunha and his team had the choice to stay or join VdA. They decided to start a new firm together, version 2.0 if you will. This interview uncovers the success, challenges and journey of these last nine years, and how the firm has managed to grow so quickly.
According to the revenue report you shared exclusively with Iberian Lawyer, your firm has recorded a 45% growth in revenue in 2023, compared to the year before. How?
The headcount of the firm currently stands at 156, with over 115 lawyers. I believe that we are again, the law firm that grew the most in Portugal last year. The way that my partners and the team have been aligned during these last nine years, is something that I am very proud of. But this is not a startup anymore. I feel that more and more, the market respects us. People want to join our project and we have made a number of lateral hires at the partner level.
The financial results for 2023 seem the most impressive so far, given your current scale. It would be fair to say that, to grow in revenue from just under 9 million to nearly 13 million euros in year eight, is much more significant than growing from 1 to 2 million in year two or three?
Yes, 2023 has been our most impressive year for growth so far. We have increased our revenue on average by at least 25-40% every single year since the firm was founded in 2015. Our growth has been achieved and sustained because of the way we structure our operational targets and budgets. We always plan our strategy every year looking at the next five years. We know exactly what we have, and the targets we want to reach. We aim to mitigate and work in different scenarios and observe the kind of work we are doing and how we are gaining new clients. We are working on so many different strategies at the same time. For example, this 45% that we grew last year, it wasn’t because one of transaction or one practice area. All areas of the firm are roughly growing at the same level.
Can you tell us anything about your strategy for the next five years?
We decided in our partners meeting one year ago that we want to achieve €20 million in annual revenue by the end of 2028. If everything goes smoothly, I think we will achieve that number by 2027. For example, last year we made one lateral hire, Ricardo Cardoso, in order to start our practice of sports, entertainment and fashion. Even if Ricardo and his team hadn’t joined the firm, we would have grown by 33%.
When you and your partners look five years ahead, it sounds like you are less focused on the how, and in real time, monitor the profit and loss every month, and see what you need to adjust?
Exactly, yes. The thing is that we are very flexible. We try to adapt ourselves to opportunities that make sense. More importantly, we don’t compromise in any way on our culture. We have our own culture and I often say, that as a firm, you will either love it or hate it. This is because we are very intense and tend to be very aggressive, in the good meaning of the words, of course. We operate as a team. We don’t have heads of different areas. Partners and associates work in a very horizontal way meaning that if an associate is specialised in a certain sector or field, they will manage the client from A-Z. We don’t have the traditional model where partners always review the work of an associate. If we know that someone at 28 years old is really sharp, and knows what they are doing, we give them the responsibility. We trust our people.
Is your trust in your associates reflected in your retention figures?
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