Cuatrecasas vice-chair and honorary partner André Gonçalves Pereira dies

Cuatrecasas have announced the death of vice-chair and honorary partner André Gonçalves Pereira. 

Gonçalves Pereira died last night in Lisbon at the age of 83.

He was the founding partner of Portuguese law firm Gonçalves Pereira, Castelo Branco & Associados, which merged with Cuatrecasas.

Rafael Fontana, senior partner of Cuatrecasas, said André Gonçalves Pereira was an “extraordinary lawyer—brilliant and intelligent—whose immense prestige transcended the national borders of Portugal”. He continued: “André was not only a pivotal figure for the practice of law in Portugal, but also in Portuguese academic, political and cultural life.”

Fontana added: “He also played a key role in the process of integrating Cuatrecasas with Gonçalves Pereira, which culminated in what was the first and most important merger of Iberian law firms, creating what we are today – a leading law firm in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, and one of the most innovative in Europe.”

Managing partner of Cuatrecasas in Portugal, Maria João Ricou, whom André Gonçalves Pereira mentored at the beginning of her career, said: “We have been left by an outstanding academic, a lawyer who touched generations and an extraordinary person who will always inspire us in our professional life and as people. We will always remember him with deep admiration, gratitude and affection.”

Born in Lisbon on July 26, 1936, André Roberto Delaunay Gonçalves Pereira became a lawyer in 1959 and obtained a doctor of laws from the University of Lisbon aged only 25.

He was a senior university lecturer in public international law, minister of foreign affairs of the Portuguese Republic (1981-1982), member of the board of directors of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and a representative of the Portuguese Republic in the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and UNESCO. He was also a guest lecturer at Columbia University (USA) and at universities in Madrid, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

During his career, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Our Knights of Lord Jesus Christ (1983) and the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry of Portugal (2006), as well as being appointed a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour of France (1982). He was also a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1981), the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil (1982), and a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold of Belgium (1981).