Duarte Garcia has wide-ranging experience advising clients on public bids, public service concessions, public-private partnerships, privatisations, and use of public properties. The firm has a long run portfolio related to privatisations, defence on civil public actions and other enforcement measures in administrative and civil sanctions.
Duarte Garcia has an interdisciplinary team focused on urban law and land occupation issues, counting with experts on both the administrative law and the real estate particularities of municipal regulations. The firm assesses clients on all stages of licensing and obtainment of urban authorisations in the administrative and judicial spheres.
The Duarte Garcia’s Environmental Department is engaged with the resolution of liabilities involving contaminated areas, forest issues and environmental preservation areas on largest construction and heavy engineering companies and on real estate development, also on proceedings of implementation and expansion of landfills.
Furthermore, the Environmental Department works in administrative and judicial proceedings for approval or resolve diverse environmental liabilities (environmental permit; land contamination; vegetal suppression; agreement to recover the environmental damage compliance) related to development.
Our firm is broadly experienced in the advisory of its clients in alternative methods of dispute resolution, preparation of arbitration agreements and all required strategic instruments.
Our attorneys are skilled arbitrators and have a well-known practice in arbitration and mediation proceedings, as well as in the judicial issues involving them, including the request for arbitration, actions for annulment, proceedings for execution or annulment of arbitral awards and reports, in addition to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.
The Real Estate Litigation highlight the general litigation team, enabling precise, highly skilled performance aligned with the practices and needs of the sector.
We have vast experience in preparing diverse contractual modalities - in several market segments - counting on the integrated support of all the other specialized practice areas of the firm.
We have a dedicated and highly qualified team to provide specialized legal assistance in all aspects of Family and Succession Law and Wealth and Succession Planning.
Our team also has experience in succession planning strategies to meet a wide range of requirements, always seeking to ensure the continuity of family businesses and greater tax and corporate efficiency.
We work closely with finance and accounting specialists, as well as tax planning professionals, to provide comprehensive and integrated succession planning.
In addition, our team is recognized for its negotiation and mediation skills, seeking, whenever possible, amicable and conciliatory solutions to family conflicts.
With significant experience in regional, national and international corporate and M&A matters, our corporate group acts as trusted advisors to leading companies.
Our Corporate practice is closely integrated with other leading practices at the firm, thereby providing a full-service solution for our clients, with lawyers who have a deep understanding of the industry in which they operate.
We counsel local and international clients on a broad spectrum of legal and business matters, including mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. We provide a comprehensive solution that includes all practice areas necessary to complete complex corporate transactions, including corporate taxation, capital and financial markets and foreign investments.
Our multidisciplinary character allows us to accommodate our clients’ needs, local and foreign, to the Brazilian legislation, exploring its flexibility where it exists and clearly pointing out its limits. We have a straightforward policy of identifying legal risks and contingencies and of translating them clearly and openly to our clients, with a focus to the preservation of their interests in the long run.
On the financial market front, our department has recently worked closely with investment funds.
Most of our deals consisted of M&A operations (on the buyer-side) on the real estate and pharmaceutical market segments, as well as in venture capital operations in the financial/payment technology sectors. We have also structured, alongside other departments, the issuance of securities (mostly debentures) and their guarantees.
Financial markets aside, we have assisted many companies, individuals and groups of individuals in the reorganization of their businesses, for tax, governance and succession purposes, as well as in their inorganic expansion.
As evidence of our department’s prestige, we were recognised in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the international guide IFRL 1000.
Assistance in land use and occupancy regulations, planning and structuring real estate transactions regarding residential, industrial and commercial developments, shopping centres, hotels, multi-use property and others. The firm also advises clients on the emission of financial instruments related to the real estate market. The team is able to assess clients in the emission of all sorts of in financial solutions directed to the property sector such as real estate securities and securitisation products.
The capital markets team provides legal advisory services to corporations, investors, financial institutions and securitisation companies on the structuring of complex financing transactions in the real estate sector, including issuances and public offerings of securities, fund formation and fund management. The main transactions in which the firm provides advice are Real Estate Investment Funds (FII), Real Estate Asset-Backed Securities (CRI), Debentures, Bank Credit Certificates (CCB), Private Equity Investment Funds (FIP), and other debt financing transactions.
Auditing for liability contingences, negotiation of collective bargaining with work class associations and defence on labour courts are among the expertise of the labour practice. The team is highly specialised on labour claims related to health care industry, construction and real estate sectors.
Duarte Garcia is widely recognized for its traditional and unique performance in civil litigation, acting on behalf not only of public figures, such as politicians, and some of the most relevant companies in all sorts of industries, such as real estate, cement, ports and sugarcane, but also defending their interests in cases regarding their core businesses.
Over the past few years Duarte Garcia has been acting on arbitration proceedings of great relevance, involving large sums of money and with favourable awards for our clients. As a consequence of the outstanding results, the arbitration proceedings have been increasing expeditiously.
The firm counts with a qualified team that represents clients in a wide variety of disputes under the leadership of renowned attorney Mário Sérgio Duarte Garcia, one of the most influential attorneys of Brazilian law history.
Our firm advises in complex and/or high impact cases for all sorts of industries, being widely recognized as the most important law firm to deal with strategic matters by those clients. The team is capable of advising clients with pretrial negotiations, documentation and preparation for trial, summary judgement motions, trial, appeals, enforcement proceedings, arbitration proceedings, as well as judicial arbitration related demands.
As evidence of our department’s prestige, we were recognized in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the international guides Leaders League, Benchmark Litigation, The Legal 500, and Latin Lawyer 250 in 2022, 2023, 2024 e 2025.
Duarte Garcia, Serra Netto and Terra’s White Collar and Compliance team is formed by attorneys with extensive experience and knowledge in the criminal law field and in the implementation of compliance programs and conduct of internal investigations. We advise our clients in a preventive perspective, from the mitigation of criminal risks, to cases of defence against materialized criminal charges, in all instances.
We work in an integrated way with the other areas of the firm, to optimize the service provided to our clients and generate synergy by saving time and resources.
We act on two fronts.
Compliance: from the point of view of money laundering or illicit corruption acts prevention, we conduct audits, risk assessments, and internal investigations of all sizes. We operate in merger and acquisition operations, evaluating compliance red flags for laundering and anticorruption. We advise clients with the conduction of training and the draft of Profile Reports and Integrity Reports to authorities. We also act in the implementation or adaptation of compliance programs for the fulfilment of regulatory duties for bidding purposes, for the accomplishment of agreements in the regulatory or judicial area or for adequacy of investors' requirements.
White Collar: We assist our clients on advisory and criminal litigation cases - police investigations, criminal investigative procedures or criminal actions - both ways in the defence of the accused or in support of the victim. We work in all areas of Criminal Law, including Infraction Law and Military Criminal Law. Our team treats each case according to its specificity, counting on the support of the other areas of the firm, which allows a high level of specialization.
Our department’s were recognised in 2024 by the international guide Leaders League.
The work of this practice includes tax litigation, preventive assistance and advisory as to taxes concerning industrial, commercial and service activities. The firm particularly stands out for its record of tax disputes that affect a large variety of clients playing important roles in the real state and service sector, as a result of its intense practice in both administrative and judicial Courts. It is highly known for successful implementation of tax strategies in a broad range of commercial and corporate operations.
Our department’s were recognised in 2023 by the international guide ITR Wordl Tax.
We have extensive experience and preparation to deal with all issues related to urban planning law, in the administrative and judicial spheres, including:
- Drafting legal opinions and advising on processes relating to the application of urban planning instruments, such as
- Legal advice and monitoring of urban licensing applications, such as such as applications for:
- Advising and representing clients in administrative procedures in general before municipal, state and federal bodies regarding the application of urban planning legislation (e.g. urban planning legislation (e.g. Master Plan, Land Use and Occupation Law, Building Code, etc.);
- Consultancy specializing in the legal analysis of urban indices and parameters applicable to construction projects, including examination of the utilization coefficient, quota part, setbacks, occupancy rate, permitted uses, volumetry, open spaces, minimum and maximum lot size, etc., all from an exclusively legal perspective;
- Acting in lawsuits at all levels, especially in common procedure suits, writs of mandamus, injunctions, etc. Procedure, writs of mandamus, public civil actions and popular actions related to urban planning issues;
- Representing clients in investigations conducted by the Public Prosecutor's Office related to the application of urban planning legislation and advising on the signing of Terms of Conduct Adjustment.
- Drafting of Private Expressions of Interest (MIPs) for the development of Public-Private Partnerships or other projects that can be developed jointly between the public authorities and the private sector related to the implementation of urban planning projects.
