Machado Meyer is not just a big name in the Brazilian legal profession, it is a matriarch. Some of the major firms in this competitive market were born directly from Machado Meyer’s extremely productive talent factory, which says something about the calibre of lawyers here. The firm has a leading reputation across a wide range of practice areas, both transactional and non-transactional, and an enviable track record advising international companies from a wide variety of sectors. There is particularly strong expertise in areas such as infrastructure, banking, tax, labour, antitrust and M&A.
Machado Meyer achieved several important milestones in 2022. To start, it celebrated 50 years in the market. In tandem with the anniversary, the firm launched a non-profit organisation – Instituto Machado Meyer – through which it aims to promote education in Brazil. The institute is part of the firm’s fine and long-standing efforts in social responsibility and is funded by partners and clients of the group. Machado Meyer’s goal with the institute is to enhance equal access to education in Brazil and, ultimately, help to solve racial inequality. Furthermore, the firm surpassed the 100-partner mark and is now, together with Mattos Filho and Pinheiro Neto, one of only three Brazilian firms in that category.
To get there, Machado Meyer made one of its usual big partner promotion rounds, which added eight partners across its M&A, tax, litigation, labour, energy and finance areas. This type of move characterises Machado Meyer, which favours organic growth over lateral hires. In fact, some 75% of the partners have been with the firm since the early stages of their careers. When it needs to boost smaller practice groups or set up new ones, however, the firm is open to external hires. It did so in 2022 by recruiting two insurance partners from Mattos Filho, while a disputes partner joined from Campos Mello Advogados in cooperation with DLA Piper.
Like all other firms, of course, Machado Meyer occasionally also sees partners leave. For example, a competition partner departed in 2023 to launch a boutique, while another left for the São Paulo office of an international firm.
Meanwhile, recent years have seen the firm undergo a comprehensive modernisation process that witnessed prominent senior partners transfer power to a talented, younger generation. The move revamped the career track, making it clearer to lawyers how long they should expect to spend in different roles and what goals they need to meet to move up. It also entailed significant changes to the firm’s partner compensation system, which is now more transparent. A large share of the outfit’s profit is split objectively, based on a few parameters such as hours billed. The small remainder is allocated following a review by the firm’s remuneration committee, which considers lawyers’ initiatives, including involvement in committees, diversity initiatives or the launch of new affinity groups. Putting such comprehensive structures in place can be tricky for any law firm to navigate, but Machado Meyer has been able to do so smoothly and with superior results.
The firm’s adaptability is demonstrated elsewhere too. To make the practice more efficient, Machado Meyer is applying artificial intelligence to due diligence processes, as well as training lawyers to use these technology platforms. Moreover, the management is looking at how to incorporate client experience tools and data analytics to support decision-making. What is more, the firm has been centralising secondary activities routinely performed by lawyers and developing standardised procedures to cut down the time spent on administrative tasks. Among its back-office staff, Machado Meyer has also rolled out training using Lean Six Sigma, a team-based management approach that relies on data to improve performance.
The expansion in 2022 reflects what was a highly productive year for Machado Meyer. According to Latin Lawyer’s Deal Tracker Report for that year, Machado Meyer worked on more transactions than any other firm in Latin America. This is not a one-off performance, but a trend seen in previous years as well. Several of its leading departments can point to important deals over the past year. For example, its multidisciplinary environmental, social and governance (ESG) group stood out once again, as it advised on sanitation company BRK’s blue bond issuance – the first in Latin America’s private sector.
A factor behind Machado Meyer’s leading role in the legal market is its popularity among the region’s largest businesses. According to a study, “Who Represents Latin America's Biggest Companies”, published by the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association (LACCA), which is affiliated to Latin Lawyer, Machado Meyer represents 40 of 100 of the largest companies in the region by revenue. That makes it the fourth most popular firm in Brazil. Regular customers include Carrefour, Marfrig, ArcelorMittal, Telefónica and Petrobras, together with a host of other significant names such as Vale, Braskem, Magazine Luiza, JBS, Cosan, Enel, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (GPA – formerly Pão de Açúcar), AmBev, MercadoLibre and Neoenergia. It is hard to think of a large investment bank in the market with which the firm has not worked on a regular and long-term basis, including Caixa, Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco and Citibank, among others.
Machado Meyer places considerable focus on high-quality standards and client relationships. Its leaders are conscious that talent, especially nowadays, is not only motivated by financial gain – there must also be a purpose. Acknowledgement of this fact has seen the firm double up on its social responsibility efforts. It has set itself the challenge to reach gender equality in the partnership by 2030, a target that is not too far away. The firm’s partnership is, at the time of writing, 42% female. Machado Meyer firmly believes that having women in leading roles at the firm will ultimately facilitate gender parity across the organisation. It is already making strides in this regard. Among the practice groups listed in this profile, more than half have a female head or co-head. The executive board has three women among its eight members, and several committees have leaderships equally split between men and women. On other fronts, the firm has three affinity groups championing gender, racial equality and LGBTQ+ rights. It is working together with local universities to increase the representation of black lawyers at the firm, while it is also involved in Aliança Jurídica pela Equidade Racial, an alliance among local firms to increase the share of black lawyers in the legal market. The firm is also leading by example with its pro bono practice, which is recognised for its excellent work and consists of some 100 members, a mix of partners, lawyers and interns.
Management
Antitrust and compliance lawyer Tito Amaral de Andrade has overseen the firm since 2018. He was re-elected to a four-year mandate in 2022. Besides Andrade, the firm’s executive council includes Adriana Pallis, Adriano Ferreira, Fernando Tonanni, Eliane Carvalho, Marcelo Fortes, Maria Flavia Seabra and Mauro Bardawil Penteado. Founding partners Antonio Meyer, José Roberto Opice and Moshe Sendacz are now fully retired.
Offices
The firm’s headquarters are in São Paulo but it has offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Belo Horizonte. It also has a presence in New York.