This year, Portugal marks the 30th anniversary of the revolution that saw democracy ushered in. The revolution among Lisbon’s lawyers came two decades later; sole practitioners began in the late 1980s and early ’90s to group together to share costs and create partnerships. Major mergers are still taking place in the market, a sign that the Portuguese market still has some way to go before it can be declared mature.
The entry of Spain’s highly respected Uria & Menendez into Portugal in 2001 added a new dimension to the market. In the same year, Linklaters had its serendipitous Lisbon launch when a top finance team at former ally Morais Leitao J Galvao Teles & Associados defected to the international giant. At the time, Simmons & Simmons was the most high profile foreign player in Lisbon, having made an early entry into the market with big name Pedro Rebelo de Sousa in 1992.
