Unit LEGAL - Sociedade de Advogados

Firm Overview: Unit LEGAL, formerly Espanha e Associados - Sociedade de Advogados, SP, RL, is a Portuguese law firm incorporated in November 2004 with its head office in central Lisbon. The firm provides counselling, assistance and legal representation before all jurisdictions. For each practice area, Unit LEGAL provides legal services and representation in internal and cross-jurisdictional transactions, informing, advising or representing foreign clients with interests in Portugal, assisting domestic clients with their business abroad and advising other international businesses involved in international projects with the know-how acquired over the years.

Unit LEGAL is a member of TAGLaw®, a worldwide alliance of independent law firms with more than 140 member firms based in nearly 100 countries.

Partners: Elsa Rodrigues, Rita Beirôco and Luís Almeida Carneiro

Number of partners: 3

Number of lawyers: 18

Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate & M&A:

1 partner

Unit LEGAL’ Corporate team provides consultancy to national and international clients on a daily basis to ensure that clients are in full capacity to comply with the applicable law and all corporate governance rules, providing continuous support to the client's activities from an internal management view point. They are also frequently involved in restructuring operations, on both buyer and vendor side, including, mergers, demergers, and acquisitions. The team establishes long-lasting partnerships with their clients, being actively participating in all phases of each operation’s implementation – design and restructuring, conducting audits, drafting, and negotiating contracts and all the relevant documentation.

Working closely with the tax department, the Corporate team has also been advising clients on international restructurings, namely, on the incorporation of international structures. Over the past months, the team has also been supporting foreign companies (in particular, from USA, Canada, Ireland, Denmark and UK) in implementing new structures in Portugal.

In short: dedication, experience, technical excellence and creativity combined with a pragmatic approach and innovative solutions are the best words to describe Espanha e Associados’ Corporate team.

Contact: Rita Beirôco

Employment:

1 partner

Employment law team has gained an increasing recognition due to its increasing experience and high degree of specialisation. The team has solid knowledge of the Portuguese employment laws as well as of the particular rules of the main industries, in order to be able to advise their clients in an extensive range of sectors. The employment team is recognised for its alignment with their clients, particularly in restructuring businesses including collective dismissals, implementing new practices in the organisations in full compliance with employment law and contractual models. Espanha e Associados employment team is totally focused on providing a strategic approach and pragmatic solutions for each situation.

Contact: Luis Almeida Carneiro

Tax:

1 partner

Tax law is one of the areas where the firm’s specialisation is highly recognised. The firm has solid knowledge of the Portuguese tax rules and of several international tax regimes. Considering that this is an area of utmost relevance and that may give rise to significant liabilities, all E&A services are always provided from a global perspective, so that the tax impact of the issues is considered. The firm provides tax consulting services to Portuguese and international entities acting in different lines of business like insurance companies, financial institutions, professional firms, IT sector, among others, as well as to private and high net worth individuals, both resident and nonresident in Portugal, expatriates and persons with non-habitual residence in Portugal. The firm assists its clients in different phases of their activities, namely assisting in the set up and launch of new activities, advising on the existing structures, cooperating in mergers, splitting and restructuring operations and also assisting on financial and real estate transactions, always on a tax optimisation perspective. The firm provides compliance services, such as due diligences, corporate income tax returns (Modelos 22) review, tax refund claims, transfer pricing, among others. The firm also develops intensive activity in tax litigation, both in the administrative and the jurisdictional phases and also tax arbitration as an alternative mean of dispute resolution. Commitment, experience, technical excellence and creativity combined with a pragmatic approach and innovative solutions are Espanha e Associados tax team skills to assist on client’s investment and international transactions and structures.

Contact: Elsa Rodrigues