Cruz Vilaça Advogados opened this week its office in Lisbon. The event, which took place on October 14 and 15, brought together family, friends, clients, colleagues and representatives of national and international institutions who made a point of being next to José Luís da Cruz Vilaça, former judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and his team in presenting this new project.

The office, located in Avenida Duque de Ávila, in the center of Lisbon, focuses on European Union Law, Competition Law and Fundamental Rights and is committed to seeking innovative solutions that are tailored to the challenges inherent in its areas of expertise, in particular, those represented by the current transitional phase of Europe and the modern world (digital, energy, environment and Brexit).

To achieve this goal, Cruz Vilaça Advogados has a team with international experience and unique expertise, including lawyers Carla Farinhas and Mariana Martins Pereira and consultants José Guilherme Xavier de Basto, José Carlos Vieira de Andrade, Francisco Costa-Cabral and Franziska Zibold.

Paulo de Almeida Sande, lawyer and former director of the European Parliament's office in Portugal, is the company's strategic advisor.

“This project is special. It has begun to take shape already in Luxembourg and comes at a time when I could be finishing and not starting new projects, but we think that it would be unreasonable to waste the rich experience of the last six years at the Court of Justice of the European Union”, pointed out José Luís da Cruz Vilaça during the inauguration, who headed the European Union Law and Competition Law practice of the law firm PLMJ for 17 years.

José Luís da Cruz Vilaça, who was also the first President of the then Court of First Instance of the EU, today the General Court, acknowledges that in Portugal “there are great law firms, which I respect” and points out that Cruz Vilaça Advogados wishes to establish itself as a “specialized boutique” that “practices law in a different way” with the “ability to adapt to the demands of the market”.