Proença de Carvalho goes solo

Francisco Proença de Carvalho (pictured), partner at Uría Menéndez – Proença de Carvalho, is embarking on a new venture, marking the start of his own projects as announced in February of this year. As he departs from the Spanish-origin firm, the association between the brands Proença de Carvalho and Uría Menéndez, initiated in 2010, also comes to an end. In Portugal, the law firm will henceforth be known solely as Uría Menéndez.

“As I announced about six months ago, the last day of the ‘dear month of August’ was also my last day at Uría Menéndez. (…) It has been 14 years of great collective success. I am proud to have been part of this Iberian team, especially for the opportunity to meet extraordinary people from various nationalities. It was also a unique opportunity to understand the workings and dynamics of international law,” Proença de Carvalho wrote on his social media profile.

A new phase

“Those who know me understand that I live with a certain restlessness. I cannot conceive of life without excitement, without new challenges and scenarios. Without the world. Additionally, I ‘inherited’ from my father a special appreciation for freedom and independence. And, at times, we must give up ‘certain certainties’ to be more ‘ourselves.’ It was with this spirit that I decided to leave Uría Menéndez and bring with me the ‘Proença de Carvalho’ brand,” he stated.

According to the former Uría Menéndez partner, this marks the beginning of “a new phase in his professional life as a lawyer, but not only that.” According to a press release announcing his decision six months ago, after more than 20 years of practicing law, Proença de Carvalho decided to take a new direction in his legal career “in a model more compatible with my desire to reconcile law with other professional and personal interests.”

The lawyer, specializing in dispute resolution (litigation, economic criminal law, and arbitration), was born in Lisbon, holds a law degree from Católica, and has been involved in high-profile cases. He is the lawyer for former banker Ricardo Salgado and has also been involved in the BCP cases (representing the late Christopher de Beck), BPP (on Deloitte’s side due to alleged audit failures), CTT (with Carlos Horta e Costa and other clients), as well as the secret service case (with Nuno Vasconcellos), and he also defended Canadian economist Peter Boone in a case of manipulating Portuguese public debt.

The Iberian Alliance

Based in Madrid, Uría Menéndez operates primarily in the Ibero-American market and currently has over 600 lawyers providing legal advice in all areas of business law in Portugal, Spain, and the rest of the European Union. The firm has been in Portugal since 2001 and, in 2010, merged with the law firm Proença de Carvalho & Associados.