We are delighted to have so many friends and partners here tonight, helping us celebrate the 21st anniversary of NORONHA-ADVOGADOS, and the 12th anniversary of our London offices. To mark this special occasion, we are launching the book “Investing in Brazil: a Legal and Practical Guide” which is a joint project involving the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Foundation Alexandre de Gusmão of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations, and NORONHA-ADVOGADOS. The book has a foreword by the Brazilian Minister of External Relations, Ambassador LF Lampreia and marks the new observer status of Brazil within the OECD. It has just come off the printing press in Brasilia and the complimentary copies made available to you tonight were brought into London today by one of our partners in the Rio de Janeiro offices.
In order to enrich our celebration, we have also directly imported, specially for the occasion, the Brazilian wines you are drinking tonight – the Miolo Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon and Miolo Chardonnay – from the northern slopes of the beautiful mountains of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil´s southern most state. I am sure you will agree, especially Mr. John Gummer MP present among us tonight, that it is a perfect accompaniment to the excellent English beef being served.
Our choice of venue, Canning House, is a sign of the very close ties that NORONHA-ADVOGADOS, a Brazilian and Portuguese law firm, has with the United Kingdom. We have had a commercial presence in this country for 12 years. NORONHA-ADVOGADOS has one English partner and three English professionals based in our São Paulo offices. One of our partners, Eliana Filippozzi, of the Banking department, was the first, and is so far the only Brazilian lawyer to qualify as a solicitor and full member of the Law Society of England and Wales. This year, we have had one of our young lawyers doing a master´s programme in law at the London School of Economics, and an English trainee from Oxford in our São Paulo offices.
In one week, we will open our Los Angeles offices, staffed initially with four lawyers. This will be our ninth office in five different countries and will cover the west-coast of the USA, Mexico and Central America. We now have seven Latin-American offices – São Paulo, Rio, Brasília, Curitiba, Buenos Aires, Miami and Los Angeles – and two European offices – in London and Lisbon. NORONHA-ADVOGADOS today numbers approximately 150 professionals qualified in Argentine, Brazilian, English, Portuguese and US law.
On the same day as the opening of our Los Angeles office, our affiliate publishing house, Legal Observer Inc., based in Miami, Florida will be launching its electronic commerce mode of legal services on Brazilian and Portuguese laws. Legal Observer will be offering translations of all Brazilian and Portuguese laws relevant to business, into English. In addition, Legal Observer shall be offering Brazilian and Portuguese legal forms pertaining to company law, contracts, banking and numerous other areas. We invite you to visit the site directly at:
www.legalobserver.com
or through our home page:
www.noronhaadvogados.com.br
You will undoubtedly be very pleased to know that our terms and conditions have a choice of English law. Finally, my partners and I are delighted to have been associated with you all, in one form or another, and hope to maintain and improve the relationships in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
Dr. Durval de Noronha Goyos Jr
Lawyer admitted in Brazil, England and Wales and Portugal. GATT and WTO panelist. Brazilian government ad-hoc representative for the Uruguay Round of the GATT. Post-graduation professor of the law of international trade.