BF:LB Advogados

Managing Partners: Bruno Frota, Leandro Benevides and Guilherme Nóbrega

Number of partners: 4

Number of other lawyers: 12 (Manaus) and 1 (Rio de Janeiro)

Languages: English, Italian,Spanish and Portuguese

Firm Overview: 

BF:LB Advogados is a firm that was established in Manaus since 2005, focused on giving assistance to business and entrepreneurship, especially regarding to the Manaus Free Trade Zone's issues (Zona Franca de Manaus). In the last years Tax has become the core practice area of the firm and around half of the firm’s lawyers are allocated in this area. The tax team deals with advisory and litigation, about both direct and indirect taxation, besides international taxation. The firm has also teams for the coverage of a wide scope of practice areas concerning legal support to business activities as a whole, such as the regulatory, labour and contracts.

Main Areas of Practice: 

Tax: 50%

Corporate & Contracts: 10%

Litigation: 10%

Labour: 10%

Regulatory: 20%

Tax: 

Tax law is practiced by LB:BF Advogados for advisory and litigation, and most of the topics concerning taxation are covered. The tax teams of LB:BF Advogados have though a strong knowledge on Brazilian VAT-type taxes and social contributions (ICMS, IPI and PIS/Cofins),corporate tax and double tax treaties. Tax incentives are a core topic in the taxation teams’s routine, specially concerning the regimes related to Manaus Special Economic Zone. Besides that, some of the largest retail and consumptions goods distribution companies playing in Brazil are advised by the firm and demand its opinion letters concerning indirect taxes, specially the taxpayers’ substitution regimes (kind of Brazilian reverse charge, typically adopted in indirect taxes), since one of the firm’s partner is a leading scholar in researches about this topic and many of his works about this are published in the most prestigious academic journals and technical books. Finally, the taxation practice in LB:BF Advogados also includes wide tax advisory and planning for foreign investors and for national companies investing abroad.

Corporate & Contract Law: 

The firm’s corporate and contract law team advises clients since the very first steps of any negotiation of a deal and it is very experienced in litigating about these subjects before courts, so its assistance is very focused on preventing disputes from one side, but also making the client the most prepared possible for incidental conflicts. Since some of its clients are foreign investors, the paralegal staff is also very experienced in setting up their Brazilian subsidiaries and assisting on their office routine as well.

Labour: 

The firm’s labour practice represents clients in all aspects of labour and employment relationships, specially in Manaus Free Trade Zone, where the labour law team is all established. It provides full representation in litigation matters before all courts in the country and very fast and precise advisory concerning employment law and negotiations with Employees Unions.

Regulatory: 

The firm’s regulatory practice area is very wide and encompasses almost all issues concerning administrative law, but also economic and anti-trust law. Recently the partner of the area conducted a case in the anti-trust agency in Brazil (Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica – CADE), before which a proceeding was filed in order to assess an acquisition of one of the largest drugstores company in Northern Brazil (maybe the largest) by its main competitor. The proceeding was terminated, in favour of the full clearance of the acquisition, without any conditions.

International Work: 

LB:BF Advogados has an international network for providing the solutions its clients demand, specially including the jurisdictions the firm most frequently work with, as the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Uruguay.

Clients: 

Retail, gross distribution of consumption goods, capital industry, international trade, energy, oil and gas.