Veículo: Leaders League
Data: 7/6/2018
Three seasoned Brazilian practitioners from the corporate, projects and mining spheres have joined forces to establish new firm Mello Torres Advogados as a force to be reckoned with. Founding partners Luis Antonio Semeghini de Souza, Carlos José Rolim de Mello and Clovis Torres worked side by side at Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados almost 20 years ago, and since then, each has become a high-profile name in Brazil’s legal universe.
Despite only setting up shop in São Paulo and Rio two months ago, the firm already represents major players such as Vale, Goodman and MSC amongst others.
Before founding boutique Rolim de Mello Sociedade de Advogados, the starting point of this new firm, Carlos José Rolim de Mello worked for 25 years at Machado Meyer building up his expertise in M&A and private equity by handling mandates for such front-running clients as Parmalat and BRF, Ipiranga and Ultrapar, among others.
Luis Antonio Semeghini de Souza co-founded Souza Cescon, Barrieu, Flesch Advogados in 2001 (now Cescon, Barrieu, Flesch & Barreto Advogados) where he worked for 17 years representing leading multinationals and banks in high-profile public projects cases. His in-depth knowledge of the financial and infrastructure sectors ensured he assisted Petrobras with numerous operations during his time at Souza Cescon.
Clovis Torres and Vale have an extensive relationship. Mr. Torres served as Corporate General Counsel between 2003 and 2007, General Counsel and Chief Compliance officer from 2011 to 2016 and Executive Officer and General Counsel from 2016 to late 2017 when he decided to join Mello Torres. Throughout his career, Mr. Torres has worked at other major companies such as Petrobras and Bahia Mineração.
Besides Torres, Mello and Souza, four partners joined the firm as lateral hires and two existing Rolim de Mello partners were upgraded to founding partner status. This move ensures Mello Torres Advogados begins its life-span with a strong corporate and financial backbone. The six partners include: Alexandre Simões Pinto, Julio Antonio Nunes Queiroz, Natália Teixeira Rabaça, Felipe Demori Claudino, Fabricio Cardim de Almeida and Bruno Sartori de Carvalho Barbosa.
