Foi publicada, na data de hoje, matéria no site Global Competition Review acerca da incorporação da Lanna Peixoto Advogados e da admissão do novo Sócio, Bruno Lanna Peixoto. A Global Competition Review é uma das mais respeitadas publicações sobre o assunto no mundo.
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Lanna Peixoto joins forces with Araújo e Policastro
Forthcoming changes to Brazil’s antitrust laws have already contributed to at least one law firm merger, with competition law boutique Lanna Peixoto Advogados merging with Araújo e Policastro Advogados in an attempt to bolster the new firm’s antitrust capabilities.
The merger, which became official earlier this month, sees Lanna Peixoto’s two partners and five associates join one of the oldest and largest law firms in Brazil. Bruno Peixoto, who was made head of the Araújo antitrust practice after leading Lanna Peixoto, says the merger will expand the depth of antitrust services the firm can provide to Araújo’s corporate clients.
“The acquisition of Lanna Peixoto Advogados […] will further widen and strengthen our structure,” says Theodoro Araújo, co-founder of the firm. “Bruno will provide clients with both sheer intellectual horsepower and a high level of energy.”
Peixoto and other lawyers in Brazil say that imminent changes to the country’s competition law was a “major factor” in the firms’ decision to merge, given the increased importance of having both an experienced antitrust group and an extensive corporate practice.
In June, Brazil will adopt a pre-merger notification system – a change that some lawyers believe may cause problems for Brazil’s many stand-alone antitrust boutiques. Under the current system, mergers do not have to be notified to the country’s antitrust authorities until they have already closed.
At present, corporate and M&A partners in full-service law firms put together deals, close them, and then hand the whole package to antitrust lawyers to sort out any possible antitrust implications and work with the agencies if necessary.
While many full-service firms have had, and continue to have, robust antitrust practices, clients sometimes choose to send the deal to a boutique as speed has been a less critical factor.
But under the country’s new pre-merger notification regime, antitrust lawyers in full-service firms say they expect to see more work – and advise on more complex matters – now that antitrust advice must happen while a deal is being put together, rather than afterwards. Lawyers say that in future clients will prefer to have all of their legal advice provided by the same firm.
Peixoto says he believes the new law’s effect on enforcement will reach beyond merger control. Under the law, which will take effect at the end of the month, the Council for Economic Defence (CADE) is authorised to hire 200 new employees when it becomes the country’s sole competition enforcement body.
While those 200 new employees won’t be hired immediately – observers say they expect the hires to be made in stages, with perhaps 50 brought on by the end of the year – Peixoto says he expects to see increases in both cartel enforcement and other behavioural cases when the new CADE is operating with a full staff.
But partners in Brazil’s antitrust boutiques say that the new enforcement regime at CADE will only increase their value to Brazilian and international companies. Boutiques remain some of the most high-profile and capable antitrust practices in the country, and lawyers there say that a more vigorous enforcement regime will require their skills and experience. (…) Peixoto, meanwhile, says that the merger is not a reflection on the antitrust capabilities of Araújo. To the contrary, the firm had a strong antitrust practice for many years, and has longstanding client relations and a growing client base.
But, he says, the firm has already seen an increased demand for advice on the new competition law – both in cross-border mergers and behavioural matters – that he believes the team from his boutique can help meet.
Ron Knox | Global Competition Review | 10th May 2012