Interview with: Fabio P. Campos Mello, Managing Partner

1) What do you see as the main points that differentiate Campos Mello Advogados in cooperation with DLA Piper from your competitors?

We can highlight some important points, the main one being the fact that we are both a traditional law firm in the Brazilian market, with over 42 years of experience and recognized excellence, and part of a giant global platform, through cooperation with DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the world. This unique combination allows us to assist clients around the globe, deliver highly efficient services and results with speed, exceptional quality and business oriented.

Our dynamic, global team of lawyers can provide the best support to clients anywhere; we are pioneers when it comes to innovation, bringing management and business news to all our stakeholders; and we have always implemented the best diversity and inclusion practices, creating an inclusive culture through meaningful and transparent initiatives.

And all of this can, in a way, be proven – and not just by the growth of the firm and the development of our professionals. CMA was the first law firm in Brazil to consistently implement the NPS (Net Promoter Score) methodology to measure client satisfaction. For several consecutive years, we reached the level of excellence – the highest level applied by the methodology.

In addition, women represent 71% of our personnel and 40% of our leaders, an extremely rare level in today’s Brazilian market. This theme is very dear to us: CMA organized this year The Latin America Leadership Summit – focused on Women and Connections, an event dedicated to promoting the empowerment of women in leadership positions, with enriching debates among leaders of various industries.

 

2) Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

We expect the Energy and Natural Resources area to continue to gain the relevance it has had in recent years, with our firm constantly involved in the most important transactions in the sector. We have increased the team with the arrival of a new partner, two of counsels and three new associates, which exponentially expands our capacity to strategically serve our clients, as well as to pursue opportunities that are multiplying every day in Brazil with the increasing diversification of our matrix and the need to decarbonize our industry.

Three other areas also stand out and deserve to be mentioned, especially because of the range of challenges and innovations they will raise in the near future: ESG, Sports and Life Sciences and Healthcare.

In addition, areas that are always relevant and strategic should continue to expand: Tax (especially due to the tax reform bill under discussion in the National Congress), Banking (another area strengthened at Campos Mello with the recent arrival of a new partner) and Real Estate (our most traditional area, which always participates in significant milestones for the country’s economic development; we are very proud to have recently been awarded Legal Firm of the Year: Real Estate by The Legal 500).

 

3) What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

Our strategy is to become business partners with our clients and for that we need to deeply understand the market where they operate. That led us to organize our practices by industry. Our specialized teams are encouraged to understand the peculiarities of each industry to offer the best advice possible. All this movement has taken place with what is part of our DNA: the use of technology to deliver an outstanding service and aligned with the best ESG practices.

However, we are witnessing a seismic change in the legal market with the development of AI. Much is said about AI but I don’t see any firm investing as much time and resources in this field. We are definitely leading the market and our clients will benefit from this.

 

4) Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Absolutely, no doubt about it. Today’s world brings new digital, governance and management standards that completely changed how we operate.

In recent years, we have invested in technology that allowed storage and full remote access to all documents, applications and information, implementation of IoT tools for performance management and investment in training.

Just to give you a few more concrete examples – which also relate to the previous question: we are investing in Robotic Process Automation to speed up manual procedures to give our team more time to focus on clients; we are implementing a new application to improve how we manage client requests and to provide a more clear and practical response to client demands; we have a global team researching and testing different AI solutions.

Thanks to those efforts, today we are more connected to our clients and more agile, providing quick responses to priority issues.

 

5) Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We have several examples of how our multidisciplinary expertise and efficiency helped the clients. With our broad expertise in Energy and Natural Resources, we advised Carmo Energy on the acquisition of Pólo Carmópolis, the largest in history involving onshore oil and gas exploration and production assets in Brazil, and Eneva S.A on the purchase of the Celse Thermoelectric Power Plant , one of the largest operating gas plants in Latin America – a very complex deal, that also involved all the funding needed by Eneva, through operations conducted through equity and debt operations in the Brazilian capital market and obtaining approvals/waivers from CELSE’s international creditors.

It is also important to mention that our Sports practice group has advised international and domestic investors who have an interest in acquiring soccer club assets in Brazil, in a pioneering movement in the country. We are the firm involved in the major acquisitions of clubs in Brazil, such as Vasco, Botafogo and many other.

 

6) Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

Definitely, clients are looking for lawyers to weigh in strategy. In my opinion, with all the technology developments, the role of the lawyer will, in one hand, evolve to become more of a strategist, and on the other hand, go back as when lawyers were “consiglieres”.

Without a doubt, all our efforts are aimed at becoming an industry-oriented provider of legal solutions. Our innovative leadership and mindset, intelligent use of technology and ESG focus will guide us along this path and provide the effective and creative strategic direction that clients will increasingly seek.

Now, answering your question, in 3 years from now, I’d like to see our firm as the leader of ESG and technology practices.