Diversified Clientele

The very diversified nature of the Firm’s clientele has permitted LOBO & IBEAS to qualify for practicing in any and all fields of business law, providing legal services which require higher specialization.
The Firm's clientele includes large enterprises in the mining and steel areas, industries of the most varied sectors - petrochemicals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, beverage and soft drinks, transportation equipment, heavy-duty equipment - stock exchanges, banks and other financial institutions - including international agencies - corporate and business class associations, investment funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.
Also included in the list of clients are commercial and services enterprises of a multiple nature, such as department stores, shopping centers, residential hotels, theme parks, real estate companies, engineering and civil construction firms, energy and telecommunications supply companies, entertainament, sports, among others.

Specialized Services

The continuous practice in cases of national and international significance has led LOBO & IBEAS to develop specific experience in such matters as:

· Arbitration
· Contracts
· Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions
· Environmental
· Financing and Capital Markets
· Intellectual Propert and Entertainment Law
· Labor and Employment
· Litigation
· Mining
· Public Administration and Government Relations
· Real Estate
· Restructuring
· Tax


Practice in other States

Although Lobo & Ibeas's activities are centered in its offices in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the Firm has clients in several other cities throughout Brazil. It is the policy of Lobo & Ibeas to personally perform the required services, traveling when necessary.
When deemed appropriate, correspondents or local attorneys are hired, but only to follow-up on cases which are Lobo & Ibeas's responsibility.

Practice in other Countries

The experience of its lawyers in international matters, representing domestic and foreign clients, has offered Lobo & Ibeas the opportunity to frequently perform services abroad - mainly in the United States, Europe and Japan - thus ensuring a continuing professional relationship with outstanding foreign law firms and legal consultants.
For example, in the United States, Lobo & Ibeas maintains an ongoing professional relationship with the law firms of Jones Day; Debevoise & Plimpton; Baker & Hostetler; Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; Mayer, Brown & Platt; Shearman & Sterling and Vinson & Elkins, among others.

Arbitration

The barriers to the development of arbitration in Brazil were overcome with the enactment, in 1996, of a modern statute on the subject, its approval in full in December 2001 by a historic Supreme Court decision and the ratification, in the following year, of the New York Convention. This sequence of favorable changes in the legal framework led to the creation of many arbitral institutions and to the increasing use of arbitration provisions in business transactions.

Lobo & Ibeas has always been actively involved in this field, regarded by the Firm as a natural extension of its solid litigation practice. Even in the period prior to the 1996 statute, the Firm had already participated in significant cases, including the famous Ivarans case, one of the leading judicial precedents that helped creating a favorable environment, which resulted in the recent legislative reform.

The Firm’s lawyers who specialize in arbitration have extensive experience acting as counsel, legal experts and arbitrators in domestic and international disputes. Some are members of the arbitrator’s panel of highly regarded arbitral institutions and many have published articles in legal journals and law review magazines.

Lobo & Ibeas has also sponsored several seminars on arbitration, such as “Arbitration in Practice”, co-sponsored by Jones Day and held both in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Also in collaboration with Jones Day, Lobo & Ibeas edited the book “Arbitragem Interna e Internacional – Questões de Doutrina e da Prática” (Domestic and International Arbitration – Doctrine and Case Law Issues), containing articles ritten by lawyers from both Firms.

Contracts

Lobo & Ibeas has always acted intensely in the negotiation and drafting of various contracts, from those related to the ordinary course of business to highly complex transactions, involving national and foreign parties, many of them innovative in the Brazilian legal scenario.

In addition to the contracts that are typical of each area of its professional expertise, the Firm has also accrued extensive experience in the negotiation and drafting of contracts designed for specific atypical transactions, such as in the real estate and civil construction field, turn key agreements for the construction and operation of port terminals, railways and industrial complexes, and, in the field of international commerce of services and goods, sophisticated transactions involving the creation of adequate collateral and off-shore structures, as well as corporate and joint venture agreements, products and commodity long-term supply agreements, in Brazil and abroad, among others.

Also in the area of Contracts, the formation of working teams with professionals specialized in different sectors, such as Tax, Environment, Arbitration and Intellectual Property, for example, has been a distinguishing characteristic of Lobo & Ibeas over the years. This regime makes it possible for the clients of the Firm to benefit from the synergy among professionals with different areas of knowledge, providing them both with the indispensable security of legal expertise, as well as an efficient allocation of legal costs.

Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions

Lobo & Ibeas provides a broad and varied corporate legal practice, representing the interests of its clients in the incorporation of companies, negotiation of shareholders agreements and joint ventures, as well as providing legal support for litigation involving corporate matters, such as disputes among shareholders.

Lobo & Ibeas is also very active in the Mergers and Acquisitions area, participating in a large number of control acquisition transactions, assisting its clients in due diligence works to identify crucial issues, including those of fiscal nature, and in the drafting and negotiation of agreements for the purchase and sale of shares and assets.

In privatization transactions, the Firm has participated in the development of regulatory milestones and of all pertinent legal and contractual documentation, including the framing of the structuring of the sale process. Lobo & Ibeas’ experience in this field, advising both bidding consortiums and the public administration and its consultants, includes activities related to the concession of public services, transportation, telecommunications, steel industry, mining, financial institutions and the petrochemical industry.

Environmental

Lobo & Ibeas has a solid reputation in Environmental Law, both in preventive counseling and in administrative and judicial litigation. The Firm has participated in cases of national repercussion, involving the attainment and renewal of environmental licenses, legal aspects of environmental impact studies (EIA/RIMA), participation in public hearings, interdiction and penalty assessments of industrial activities, negotiations with governmental and non-governmental organizations, legal opinions about activities performed in protected and/or restricted areas, civil and criminal proceedings, public civil actions and environmental due diligences, among others.

The Firm offers services mainly in the areas of mining, oil and gas, steel, power generation and transmission, chemical, paper and pulp, petrochemical, automobile, metallurgy and engineering, civil construction, management of toxic residues and waste, telecommunications, food and pharmaceutical matters, fields in which the concern with the environment and the environmental legislation has become increasingly important.

Together with Norma Ambiental Serviços e Informática Ltda., Lobo & Ibeas also undertakes a complete survey, consolidation, classification and permanent update of the Federal, State and Municipal legislation concerning environment, labor health and safety, covering all states and over 200 cities.

In the area of Capital Markets, Lobo & Ibeas represents the interests of its clients in the negotiation, structuring and implementation of IPOs, public and private placements of securities (shares, debentures, ADRs, bonds, commercial papers and notes, among others), and delistings. The Firm also represents the interests of its clients in lawsuits and administrative proceedings and filings before CVM (Securities Exchange Commission).

Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law

Lobo & Ibeas provides extensive legal advice on Intellectual Property – including Copyright Law, Computer Law, Industrial Property (trademarks, patents and technology transfer) and Franchising, as well as in Entertainment Law.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Lobo & Ibeas’ practice in this area includes preventive counseling – consulting, legal opinions, analysis of potential litigation and negotiation of agreements, including copyrights, software, trademarks and patent license agreements – as well as sponsoring the interests of its clients in civil and administrative litigation (before the National Institute of Industrial Property – INPI). The Firm also acts intensely in the registration of trademarks, computer programs and trademark license agreements before the INPI.

In transfer of technology agreements – know-how supply and rendering of technical and scientific assistance – and franchising agreements, the Firm advises its clients in consulting, legal opinions, negotiation and review of contracts and registration procedures before the INPI, legal requirements for remittance abroad and tax deductibility of the agreed remuneration.

ENTERTAINMENT LAW

Lobo & Ibeas has extensive experience in Entertainment Law, including transactions related to investments in soccer clubs and domestic and international sports events, having rendered legal advice to investment funds in connection with the structuring of partnership deals and the negotiation and drafting of the corresponding agreements, as well as in the negotiation of players image rights, of economic and federative rights related to the transfer of players’, trademark licenses, game transmission assignment of rights and sponsorship agreements. The Firm also advises soccer clubs and domestic and international entities organizing sport events in connection with agreements related to television and internet broadcasting rights.

Lobo & Ibeas has also assisted its clients in the structuring of theme entertainment parks and other enterprises of the kind, drafting all required legal documentation and contractual instruments, such as condominium agreements and lease and franchise contracts, as well as structuring the relevant investments and project financing.

With extensive experience, Lobo & Ibeas’ lawyers are prepared to assist its clients in both day-to-day employment routines (such as personnel management) as well as in other fields, including collective labor law and union law, matters regarding labor safety and health and also in civil claims arising from labor accidents or labor related diseases, which fall under the jurisdiction of Brazilian labor courts.

Lobo & Ibeas’ lawyers also participate intensively in major business transactions, assisting clients in assessing existing employment related contingencies and potential liabilities.

Litigation

Since its foundation, Lobo & Ibeas has had an intense litigation practice, both in the administrative and judicial branches, in the areas of Commercial, Contracts, Tax, Labor and Environmental Law, representing not only companies, but also individuals, associations, unions and entities representing specific segments. In the commercial and contractual areas, the cases entrusted to Lobo & Ibeas are related to the widest range of subjects, such as disputes involving securities and the financial market, corporate conflicts, litigation in the energy sector, as well as lawsuits involving torts, consumers’ rights and contracts in general.

Cases are conducted by a team, with the participation of at least one partner in all court submissions. The Firm operates throughout Brazil, using, when necessary, local counsel, exclusively for follow-up purposes. The significant volume and the relevance and complexity of the lawsuits conducted by the Firm led to the formation of an experienced team, with the necessary agility to respond effectively to the increasing challenges of litigation in Brazil. Many of the lawsuits handled by Lobo & Ibeas turned into important leading cases in areas such as Arbitration, Intellectual Property, Capital Markets, Shopping Centers, Environmental and Tax.

Mining

The mining industry is, in a certain sense, the origin of Lobo & Ibeas. The practice of business law by the partners who founded the Firm started in 1960, when, acting for the Caemi Group, they undertook the legal structuring of the Águas Claras project, developed by Minerações Brasileiras Reunidas S.A. – MBR. This was the largest private project in Brazil at the time, pioneer in project finance, with a sophisticated corporate structure under the control of Augusto Antunes (Caemi) and with the participation of thirteen corporations of different nationalities, ranging from trading companies to steel mills and mining industries. Lobo & Ibeas has since been an active role player in the mining sector, representing national and foreign clients with a strong profile in the mining industry, especially from countries with an extensive mining tradition, such as South Africa, Australia and Canada.

The Firm has been working in the structuring of mining projects in their various stages, both those at grassroot level, and those whose economic viability has been evidenced by feasibility surveys, which demand sophisticated corporate, fiscal and financing structures.

The involvement of Lobo & Ibeas in the mining industry also includes routine advice concerning mining property management activities, administrative and judicial litigation, besides its active participation in the acquisition of mining properties, from the negotiation to the drafting of contracts.

Public Administration and Government Relations


Lobo & Ibeas has a vast experience in advising clients in their relationship with governmental entities, either by assisting them in biddings and in the execution of agreements with direct or indirect public administration, or by representing their interests in administrative proceedings. The Firm has provided services in this field to national and foreign clients who act in various areas, such as informatics, civil construction, street furniture and outdoor advertising, real estate, energy and oil and gas.

The Firm advises in the structuring of projects and in the procedures for the granting of necessary licenses and authorizations, representing its clients in regulatory matters before ANATEL (Telecommunications National Agency), ANEEL (Electric Energy National Agency) and ANP (Petroleum National Agency).

In the Antitrust field, Lobo & Ibeas has been providing continuous counseling to clients in matters related to M&As, spin-offs and consolidation transactions subject to governmental scrutiny. The Firm advises clients in connection with the submission of consent filings with the Brazilian Antitrust Agency, CADE, and provides legal support regarding inquiries and administrative proceedings.

Ever since its foundation, the Firm has been advising its clients in legal matters related to foreign investments in Brazil and domestic investments abroad, participating in transactions involving the conversion of credits into investments, remittance of profits abroad and repatriation of funds, as well as foreign investment registration filings with the Central Bank of Brazil.

Real Estate

Lobo & Ibeas is very active in the legal structuring of complex real estate projects including land parceling and residential housing and office building developments and the establishment and restructuring of the legal framework of shopping center developments (including, among others, the conception and drafting of joint venture agreements, condominium conventions, purchase and sale deeds, lease agreements).

The participation of Lobo & Ibeas has also been focused in litigation involving real estate and shopping centers, such as lawsuits for the rescission of leases and purchase and sale deeds, lease renewal and rent revision claims and disputes sponsored by tenants against shopping center developers arguing the validity of contractual provisions.

 

The legal issues involved in the recovery process of companies are therefore no longer restricted to the traditional bankruptcy law, and now cover all aspects of business law, including contract, corporate, financial, tax, labor and economic issues.

Using its experience in complex negotiations, corporate reorganizations, financing transactions and litigation, Lobo & Ibeas has been acting in this new scenario since the enactment of the recent law.

In this context, Lobo & Ibeas advises on acquisitions, sales, mergers, spin-offs, consolidations and winding-up of legal entities, as well as in the structuring of foreign investments in Brazil and Brazilian investments offshore. The Firm’s tax consultation services include advice on the current legislation as well as tax planning analysis.

The services provided by Lobo & Ibeas in the tax litigation area comprise challenging the constitutionality or legality of new taxes and tax raises, claims for refund of undue payments and offset requests, as well as the defense of clients against assessment notices, both in the administrative and judicial fields, in addition to the formulation of consultations and requests in connection with the recognition or establishment of special tax regimes.

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