Iberian Lawyer Labour Awards Portugal 2022, winners announced
The winners of the Iberian Lawyer Labour Portugal Awards 2022 were announced during the gala ceremony held at the Museu Do Oriente in Lisbon.
Once again, the Labour Awards recognised the excellence amongst Portuguese professionals active in this area.
The winners were the following:
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR
DLA Piper
LAWYER OF THE YEAR
César Sá Esteves – SRS Legal
With over 25 years of experience, he is considered as one of leading labour lawyers by the most important Portuguese companies. He is particularly active in the context of corporate restructuring and the employment issues related to M&A transactions. He has been evolved on the revision of the labour agreement, affecting two thousand employees.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR INDUSTRIAL & TRADE UNION RELATIONS
Macedo Vitorino
The team has been evolved in very important agreements between the clients, included a well-known company operating in the transportation industry, and the unions representing several different professions. These agreements ware crucial for the clients in their restructuring program.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR INDUSTRIAL & TRADEUNION RELATIONS
Carmo Sousa Machado – Abreu Advogados
Co-head of the labour department, she has an extensive experience and a proven track record on all matters and relevant operations related to employment. With her team she has advised a worker union in a very complex agreement with the counterpart, a well-known Portuguese company operating in the transportation sector.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR LITIGATION
PLMJ
The firm’s employment team works closely with the firm’s market-leading departments across a wide range of other practice areas to provide clients with comprehensive, fully integrated legal services. The last 12 months were very strong for the employment team: they have been working mostly in complex litigation cases.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR LITIGATION
Tiago Cortes – PLMJ
Co-head of employment practice in his firm is a very skilled and expert lawyer, recognized by his clients and peers. He advised very important companies active in many industries like retail, renewables, finance, and fashion in complex controversy regarding as well key employees.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR NON-CONTENTIOUS & ADVISORY
Eversheds Sutherland
The firm assisted many important clients in the Portuguese market operating in the most different industries. Many of them had to restructure their relations with the workers due to the pandemic, but the advisory given was at 360° with many kinds of matters involved.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR NON-CONTENTIOUS & ADVISORY
Rita Canas da Silva – Sérvulo
Her activity covers the entire labour relations’ cycle, from selecting contract models at the recruitment stage to day-to-day labour management issues, such as the structuring of working hours, remuneration policies, non-discrimination policies and guidelines on disciplinary procedures.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS
DCM | Littler
The team represents a range of business sectors, including tourism, art, distribution, food and beverage, TMT, public administration, and public sector companies. The team provides strategic, practical, and thorough legal advice and brings creative solutions to business-critical decisions.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS
Inês Arruda – Vasconcelos Arruda
She leads and coordinates the firm’s labour law team, providing daily advice to corporate and top management clients. She coordinated and directed several due diligences, and she is often invited to comment matters on economic papers.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR TOP MANAGEMENT
Antas da Cunha ECIJA
The firm provides regular advice to multinational companies, medium and small companies, as well as support to the other departments of our firm on labour matters arising from several operations and transactions. They have a wide experience in the field of top management negotiation, contracts, deals, agreements, and benefits.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR TOP MANAGEMENT
Joana de Sá – PRA – Raposo, Sá Miranda & Associados
The professional leaded a team from her firm in the formation of a start-up company in the aerospace industry. The lawyer provided a full support to the company, included the advisory to the management board for the undertaking of their functions in Portugal.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR RESTRUCTURING & REORGANISATIONS
VdA
The firm’s labour practice is one the most experienced and innovative in the Portuguese legal market, due to their grey hair approach to highly complex employment issues in a wide range of sectors. The firm assisted one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world in their restructuration process in Portugal.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR RESTRUCTURING & REORGANISATIONS
Susana Afonso – CMS Portugal
The lawyer, a recognized star in the employment market in her country, advised one of the most important financial institutions in Europe for the restructuring of its activities in Portugal, with a successful outcome both for the workers and for the company.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR M&A AND EMPLOYMENT-RELATED ISSUES
PLMJ
The firm advised important and very large companies operating in Portugal in employment issue related to very complex M&A transactions. The team stands out for the flexibility in addressing complicated matters and finds innovative solutions.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR M&A AND EMPLOYMENT-RELATED ISSUES
Marta Afonso Pereira – Linklaters
She leads both the stand alone and the transactional employment practice at the firm, regularly advising on executive and employment issues on both public and private M&A transactions. She is also a strategic and trusted advisor for clients on their most sensitive and high-profile employment disputes, HR, executive, culture and diversity-related employment issues.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR SOCIAL SECURITY
Andersen
The firm provides legal advice to national and multinational companies on the most diverse employment matters. Regarding social security, the team advised a large multinational company operating in the Portuguese in a very complex and controversial matter.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR SOCIAL SECURITY
Ana Rita Nascimento – Pinto Ribeiro Advogados
She gathers praise from her clients for being always extremely fast and pragmatic and focused on finding the best solution for clients, always trying to avoid the litigation phase, which is more costly to clients.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT
Cerejeira Namora, Marinho Falcão
The team has been involved in the major litigation cases, as well as top tier clients advisory and public employment sector deals and processes. Recently, the firm advised a local public administration in a dispute resolution against the unions of public workers.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT
Inês de Albuquerque – Travassos, Albuquerque & Associados
She stands out for the strategic advice on choosing the best public procedure to meet the needs of the client, assistance in producing the procedural documents necessary for launching public recruitment procedures, and legal support to public entities in the execution of contracts and in legal issues.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR SPORTS LAW
Morais Leitão
The law firm can count on clients among the most famous professional and companies in the sports market in Portugal with an all-around coverage and a solid expertise recognized by the peers and the clients.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR SPORTS LAW
Luis Cassiano Neves – 14 Sports Law
Leading counsel in more than 30 cases which involve specialized international litigation and arbitration skills, and more than 90 player’s deals, during both transfer windows, with clients from Europe, Southern America, and Africa, which represented a total amount of approximately 120 million euros.
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR CRIMINAL EMPLOYMENT LAW
Ejaso/ETL Lisboa
The firm has many important clients advised in complex criminal matters related to the labour practice. The team has been involved in many sector’s industries, like fashion, food & beverage and retail.
LAWYER OF THE YEAR CRIMINAL EMPLOYMENT LAW
Pedro Antunes – CCA Law Firm
He is a natural problem-solver. His extensive experience in employment litigation allows him to come up with clear and practical approaches to his clients’ issues.
YOUNG EMPLOYMENT LAWYER
Catarina Enes de Oliveira – CRS Advogados
The associate has a good expertise in labour law, despite of her young age. She assists in issues like transactions, restructuring and collective dismissal and additionally handles employment-related litigation including individual dismissals, disciplinary proceedings and litigious mandates.
BEST PRACTICE RESTRUCTURING & REORGANISATIONS
Pedro Ulrich – CTSU – Sociedade de Advogados
The founding partner and head of practice of his firm has a very valuable expertise among all the practice, his activity in the last was particularly remarkable in some very important restructuring and reorganisations operations.
BEST PRACTICE LABOUR LITIGATION
Miranda
The firm advised many clients in their litigation against employees and trade unions, among them some advantageous decision of the court for very important and labour-intensive clients: the outcomes were very important for the clients both for the saving on the indemnities and for the prevention of similar cases.
BEST PRACTICE LABOUR HEALTHCARE
TELLES
The Labour practice of the firm was very active during the last year with many important clients active in the most various industries. A large amount of the work was in the healthcare sector with many important clients assisted in their operations in various areas, from the acquisitions to the social security matters.
BEST PRACTICE LABOUR AUTOMOTIVE
SPS Advogados
The firm was involved in one of the most important merger operations of the year, with two automotive multinational companies merged in a new one. It was very relevant due to the high and complex merger operation.
