Cláudia Amorim: “The courtroom is the theatre of real life”
From corporate crime to domestic violence, the Sérvulo partner and president of the Fórum Penal shares her vision of the criminal justice system and her diverse legal practice
by glória paiva
What does ballet have to do with the courts? For Cláudia Amorim, partner at Sérvulo & Associados and president of the Fórum Penal – Associação de Advogados Penalistas in Portugal, everything. More than three decades on stage shaped her taste for exposure, tension and performance — elements she now recognises in the clashes of criminal litigation, from oral pleadings to cross-examinations. “The courtroom is the theatre of real life”, she says in an interview with Iberian Lawyer. Her practice brings together economic and corporate criminal law with a constant attention to the human and social dimensions of justice, from domestic violence to the conditions of the prison system.
“There is a theatrical element to law. It requires mastery of oral advocacy, body language and the ability to adapt to the unexpected”, the lawyer explains. At 46, Cláudia Amorim belongs to a generation that entered the legal profession at a turning point. Although she initially considered pursuing a judicial career, she began her professional path at PLMJ at a time when access to the judiciary became subject to temporal limits, leading many young jurists to opt for private practice. Litigation asserted itself from the outset. Her specialisation in criminal law was consolidated at Sérvulo, where she works closely with partner José Lobo Moutinho and of counsel Teresa Serra, and it has become her field of choice.
Today, her practice is divided between corporate crime — tax fraud, corruption, money laundering and offences linked to the exercise of corporate or public office — and the representation of individuals. This second strand includes crimes against honour, cases related to freedom of expression and reputation, as well as a significant number of domestic violence cases, primarily from the perspective of victims. Part of this work is carried out under the protocol that Sérvulo maintains with APAV (Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima), which provides for free legal support in certain situations. “I am motivated by contact with realities that are not only legal, but human, and by realising that we can make some difference in people’s lives”, she says.
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