Mattos Filho has made a journey like few others. Just over a decade ago, the firm – a then 32-partner outfit, phenomenally successful in tax and financial matters but unknown in many other key practice areas – took a bold step. It completely reformed its partner compensation system and undertook an expansion project that altered its fate and the local legal market for good. In addition to making practices more collaborative by adopting a modified lock-step system, the revision paved the way for the addition of new partners, enabling the outfit to grow rapidly.
The result is a corporate institution that has raised itself to the pinnacle of the Brazilian legal market. With 140 partners by mid-2023, it is the largest firm by equity partners in Brazil, together with Pinheiro Neto Advogados. The strategy, initiated by Roberto Quiroga, has created an institutional powerhouse that boasts leading departments in all key practice areas of law, as well as corporate-style departments dedicated to finance, business development, human resources, marketing and information technology. It has surpassed the scope of a traditional Brazilian legal practice, displaying a structural framework common to US and UK players, but rarely seen in Latin America.
As Brazil’s legal market grows, so too does Mattos Filho. This flexibility is a core value of the firm, as is its commitment to creating new opportunities for its talent. Sixteen new partners were made in 2022 (compared to 15 in the previous year), with 13 of these being promotions. The lateral moves reinforced its disputes group in Brasília as well as tax and technology teams. So far in 2023, the firm has promoted eight to its partnership, adding to its labour, capital markets, M&A, antitrust, tax, finance, agribusiness, administrative, infrastructure and education practice groups.
With its clear determination to continue growing, Mattos Filho does not only add new talent, but it also creates new practices for and with its talent as well. In 2022 the firm formalised a venture capital practice, while a shipping department is also being developed. As a result of Mattos Filho’s size, any new practice areas tend to be very specialised while also building on a multidisciplinary approach. In previous years, the firm has also launched education, agribusiness and trade divisions, as well as an environmental, social and governance (ESG) group. Mattos Filho is also determined to expand its offices outside of São Paulo. With eight partners in Brasília and more than 20 in Rio, the firm is already among the largest in those locations, if not the largest. Since 2020 it has had a branch in Campinas (known for its bustling technology industry), where it intends to expand as well. The firm also has a presence in New York and London, both of which are crucial in attracting new clients to the group.
Mattos Filho’s transactional and litigious branches provide an equally large share of the firm’s revenue, an admirable balance that makes it prepared for any ups and downs in the market. It also has thriving practice groups across multiple areas. The litigation team came out strongly last year once again, while the environment, tax, infrastructure and labour practices were formidable too. Compliance and equity capital markets work suffered, however, the latter due to the current financial market situation, with no single Brazilian initial public offering (IPO) registered in 2022.
In transactional work Mattos Filho maintains a top position, with talented and skilful partners across the board. The firm is a regular contender for a top-three position in Latin Lawyer's Deal Tracker Reports for transactional deal volume, with M&A and capital markets being the driving forces. While equity work dropped in 2022, the firm’s debt capital markets team was as busy as usual. The firm’s leading M&A team also performed well, despite market uncertainty in an election year and high interest rates. A highlight from 2022 was its advice to Latin American renewables group Atlas, which was sold by UK investor Actis to US counterpart Global Infrastructure Partners. The transaction won Latin Lawyer’s Deal of the Year Award in the private M&A category.
In terms of clientele, Mattos Filho represents a phenomenal 51 of the 100 biggest companies in the region, according to the survey “Who Represents Latin America's Biggest Companies”, published by the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association (LACCA), which is affiliated to Latin Lawyer. This makes it the third most popular legal practice among these clients in Latin America. However, it is not only the number of leading companies on the firm’s books that makes Mattos Filho so impressive: the breadth of clients is equally remarkable. No client represents more than 2% of the firm’s invoicing, a fact that makes its revenue very stable.
Mattos Filho's goals extend beyond Brazil’s borders, and it is investing heavily in its lawyers’ international exposure. In 2022 nine practitioners undertook LLM courses abroad, while another nine lawyers were placed in foreign associate positions in international practices. In a separate learning initiative, Mattos Filho has launched a training programme in collaboration with Fordham Law School in New York. The programme ran for the third year in 2023 and offers a weekly session for lawyers around the world on structural issues in law firm management, with a vast list of legal service providers and academic speakers.
Mattos Filho is an innovator. Taking inspiration from UK magic circle firm Allen & Overy, in 2022 Mattos Filho launched attix, a technology hub to which it invites legal start-ups to trial their tools with lawyers and clients of the firm. The outfit is currently working with 20 companies, both from Brazil and abroad.
In another effort to drive transformation in the market, Mattos Filho also devotes attention and resources to social responsibility. It has a partner completely dedicated to pro bono work, as part of its 100% pro bono initiative through which it provides 20,000 hours or more of free legal advice every year. It also has an internal diversity focus group – Soma – which promotes racial diversity. This push for greater racial and socio-economic diversity in the legal sector deserves celebrating. The Mattos Filho Institute was launched in 2017 – it is an independent initiative financed voluntarily by partners, which offers scholarship opportunities to students from underrepresented backgrounds. In an industry where black people are severely underrepresented, Mattos Filho hired 15 black lawyers in 2022, and 6% of its practitioners are black. Mattos Filho is determined to increase this number. The firm highlights that the goal of these initiatives is not only to give back to society but also to attract and retain talent that previously would not have considered the legal industry as a viable career option. A testament that the firm is on the right track with its diversity policies is that several large companies are turning to Mattos Filho for advice on how to implement such initiatives in their own organisations.
The firm celebrated 30 years in the market in 2022, which saw it revamp its branding with a modern logo and design. It also confirmed the outfit’s intention to contribute to Brazil’s social development and to be more vocal about this going forward.
Quiroga returned to the managing partner position after former head José Eduardo Carneiro Queiroz’s premature death in June 2020. Queiroz’s arduous work to reorganise and strengthen Mattos Filho was one of many important legacies he left. The decision to let Quiroga lead the firm once again was an easy choice for the partnership. Few understand the ethos and the evolution the outfit has undergone as well as he does. Quiroga’s initiative early on in his previous tenure, between 2009 and 2015, to introduce a merit-based compensation system was crucial to supporting Mattos Filho’s ascendancy. Quiroga will remain as managing partner until 2024. Meanwhile, the firm announced in June 2023 that corporate and M&A partner Pedro Whitaker de Souza Dias will take over from Quiroga in April 2024, working alongside the outgoing leader in the meantime.
Dias has been an integral part of Mattos Filho’s leadership team in recent years, including as a member of the executive committee since 2016. He has also been involved in several other important institutional and management initiatives, such as the firm's finance and strategic planning committees.
Mattos Filho puts great emphasis on well-being and has several policies in place to ensure that its staff are happy. It offers sabbaticals at two stages of the partnership career path. The first is after 10 years of partnership and the second occurs after 20 years. To complement the outfit's six-month maternity leave, Mattos Filho has a family leave scheme for secondary caregivers for two months. It also has a policy that entitles women receiving fertility treatment to between five and 10 days of leave.
Mattos Filho has addressed the often-complex issue of succession transparently. The practice is relatively new, and the only retired lawyers are name partners Ary Oswaldo Mattos Filho, Pedro Luciano Marrey Jr and Otávio Uchôa da Veiga Filho. Their retirement was subject to separate negotiations. Going forward, partners will retire compulsorily at the age of 65. The firm has a pension system that is funded by partners while they are active, meaning that future generations are not burdened by debt. This all builds on the premise of Mattos Filho’s institutionalisation project, where no partner is more than the practice.
Management
Roberto Quiroga was re-elected as managing partner in March 2021 and will steer the practice until April 2024, when Pedro Whitaker de Souza Dias will take over the reins. Quiroga temporarily held the role from July 2020, following the passing of José Eduardo Carneiro Queiroz. Quiroga held this post between 2009 and 2015. He sits on the 11-partner executive committee, which also features: Eduardo Damião Gonçalves, Fabio Teixeira Ozi, Glaucia Lauletta Frascino, João Ricardo de Azevedo Ribeiro, Marcelo Mansur Haddad, Marina Anselmo Schneider, Marina Procknor, Pablo Sorj, Pedro Whitaker de Souza Dias and Renata Correia Cubas.
Offices
In addition to its headquarters, Mattos Filho has a separate building in São Paulo that hosts not only the Mattos Filho Academy but also a multimedia studio and the new pro bono division, among other departments. Its office in Rio de Janeiro is bigger than all other São Paulo firms in the city and competes well with local rivals in Brazil’s second-biggest legal market. The firm has also offices in Brasília, Campinas, New York and London.