Antas da Cunha Ecija integrates AMMC Legal to boost public law
Antas da Cunha Ecija has integrated AMMC Legal into its partnership structure. AMMC Legal is a boutique firm that focused on administrative law and public procurement, litigation and arbitration, land-use planning, urban regeneration and zoning, environmental law and energy.
Isabel Abalada Matos and Isabel Moraes Cardoso, founding partners of AMMC Legal, join the law firm as partners. They are joined by a team of seven other lawyers: Filipa Esperança, Ana Pires da Silva, Ana Carla Lázaro and Ana Isabel Marques, joining as counsels, as well as Francisco Cordeiro Ferreira and Margarida Ferreira Marques (as senior associates), Ricardo Reis (associate), and trainee Maria Lunet Soeiro.
“We are very enthusiastic about what this integration allows us to build, both for our client base and for our team. It was a carefully considered decision, precisely because we know what it represents and what we can achieve together”, say Isabel Abalada Matos and Isabel Moraes Cardoso. They add: “A client-centric culture, based on long-term partnerships with clients, technical rigour, and a strong commitment to innovation, AI and digital tools as differentiating factors in the provision of legal services, are values we have shared from the very beginning.”
They further underline: “We are convinced that we can create a multidisciplinary team with unique characteristics in the Portuguese market, capable of responding to the most complex projects, at a time when land-use planning, public investment, and environmental and energy challenges are increasingly central to the country.”
According to Fernando Antas da Cunha, managing partner of Antas da Cunha Ecija, “the integration of AMMC Legal represents a clear step in consolidating our value proposition in areas that are now absolutely critical to the functioning of the economy and institutions. In an increasingly demanding national and geopolitical context—marked by regulatory pressure, structural public investment and the energy transition—public law, public procurement, environment, planning and energy play a central role for companies, the State and investors.”
In addition to the nine lawyers from AMMC Legal, the public law, planning and zoning, environment and energy practice also include lawyers from Antas da Cunha Ecija: Jane Kirby (partner), Ana Luísa Neves (principal associate), Cristina Pires Pinto (senior associate), André Levi (senior associate), Diana Laezza (associate) and trainee Maria Beatriz Caniço.
Antas da Cunha Ecija’s new partners
Over the years, Isabel Abalada Matos has focused her practice on planning and land-use law, environment and nature conservation, real estate and tourism, agriculture and forestry, and administrative litigation. In addition, she has held roles advising several members of government in her areas of expertise and has participated in various legislative processes.
Isabel Moraes Cardoso practises administrative law, planning and land-use law, environment and nature conservation, real estate and tourism, energy, and agriculture and forestry. Before co-founding AMMC Legal in 2015 with Isabel Abalada Matos, she was a partner at Abalada Matos, Lorena de Sèves & Associados. Her career also includes roles as deputy director-general at the Directorate-General for Spatial Planning and Urban Development, adviser to the Ombudsman, and other roles.
