BMA Advogados

At BMA, we are committed to plurality, equality of race, gender, and sexual orientation, respect for all religions, and inclusion of people with disabilities. We believe in diversity as an instrument for social transformation, enriching our work environment and promoting valuable exchanges from different points of view.

BMA Diversity was created with the assistance of an independent expert and its projects are focused on our community. The Diversity Committee’s work rests on two main pillars: authenticity and respect – allowing our people to be themselves and creating an environment of trust within our team.

Through the BMA Diversity initiative, we seek to listen to all groups represented in today’s society and share experiences with other law firms. Working together toward a shared objective, we plan actions that will help minimize all forms of prejudice in day-to-day interactions so that we can live in a more egalitarian and inclusive world.

We are aware that the topics discussed within BMA Diversity transcend the Committee. For this reason, we have organized a large group of “Propagadores de Diversidade” (Diversity “Champions” or “Ambassadors” in English) composed of all those at BMA who are especially interested in diversity. The Ambassadors have an active and very important role: they encourage discussion over the best ways to augment diversity and inclusion, not just at work but in society at large, suggest and design diversity and inclusion actions, and disseminate BMA Diversity’s values throughout our offices. We are proud to say that we now have more than 100 people engaged in one or more affinity groups at our firm.

As part of our Diversity Program, we promote periodic training to all our team with diversity experts. Our actions also include the production of periodic newsletter on diversity to engage and inform clients and our professionals, called “BMA Plural”. On the last year, in BMA Plural, we have already discussed diversity and inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce; racism and its various forms; the 10-year anniversary of Brazil’s Racial Quota Law; fatphobia in the workplace; the struggle of women for equality in a society that, in many respects, is still dominated by a sexist perspective; the importance of family acceptance for the LGBTQIA+ community; and access to healthcare.

In Brazil, racism is structural and results in profound social inequality. Part of our work against racism is to engage in actions that minimize educational differences, because we believe that education has great transformative power.

We are proud to be part of the Aliança Jurídica pela Equidade Racial (Legal Alliance for Racial Equality), an initiative that brings together some of the main law firms in São Paulo and FGV Law School – São Paulo, with the objective of promoting inclusion of Black professionals in the legal market.

In 2022, we promoted, together with the Aliança Jurídica pela Equidade Racial, an event for our members and clients about the importance of Black People in Spaces of Power.

We are also part of Projeto Incluir Direito (the Legal Inclusion Project) led by CESA (Law Firms Center for Studies) in partnership with the Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), Universidade de São Paulo (USP) e Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The initiative contributes educational and training opportunities for self-declared Black students at the Mackenzie Law School, to strengthen their competitiveness in the job market. The project’s objective is to promote greater participation of Black persons in the legal environment and to develop a coherent, affirmative line of action that will help reduce inequalities and discrimination.

As part of our commitment to act actively in favor of a necessary transformation, building spaces of representation that reflect our society, in 2022, we launched the 1st edition of #AfirmAção (AffirmAction), our Internship Program exclusively designed for black people. Over a period of six months, students had the opportunity to rotate through key areas of the firm, including research, legal due diligence, conflict resolution, and corporate law. They were also mentored by partners and associates from these practice areas, and members of the BMA Diversity Committee. All interns who successfully completed the program became part of the BMA team.

In addition to interacting with partners, the students received English language scholarships to enhance their language skills and proficiency, developmental training focused on professional growth, and technical training focused on legal content.

We also have prepared several internal events and materials to spread awareness and uproot systemic racism in the workplace.

Another important diversity and inclusion initiative is led by our gender equality program BMA Women, which is designed to support professional development of the women at our firm and retain talent.

Women’s advances in the world are reflected at BMA: today, 58% of our people are women. Of our partners, 41% are women who actively participate in the firm’s strategic decision-making. As part of our continuing effort to achieve gender equality, BMA has signed the CEO Statement of Support for the Women’s Empowerment Principles established by UN Women and UN Global Compact. The Principles help us to promote values and best practices to expand gender equality and women’s empowerment. BMA Women also supports other women’s groups initiatives such as Ibram’s Women in Mining, 100 Women in Finance, and Women in Infrastructure.

In line with UN Women’s Empowerment Principle 4 – promoting women’s education, training and professional development – we launched our first Mentoring Program, an initiative of BMA Women focused exclusively on the professional development of our employees. The project, which is unprecedented in the firm, aims to strengthen the professional and socio-emotional skills of our younger women lawyers.

We recognize the challenge of balancing work and personal life, which weigh even more heavily on women, especially those who are mothers. We seek to implement measures to support parenting and bring more balance to gender equity. As a result, the firm’s male employees are now entitled to an extended paternity leave of one month, in addition to the right to childcare assistance.

In addition, once a year we assist the World Bank Group in the development of the Women, Business and The Law report – which analyze laws and regulations affecting women’s economic inclusion in 190 economies.

On the LGBTI+ side, our efforts are focused on creating a work environment at BMA that is not only respectful but allows people to embrace who they are in their professional and personal lives. To guide us in our efforts to increase respect for LGBTI+ rights and to contribute to reducing the vulnerability of this group and the violence it is exposed to, we are part of the Fórum de Empresas e Direitos LGBTI+ (the Business and LGBTI+ Rights Forum).

Awareness campaigns to promote respect and diversity incentives are another part of BMA Diversity’s routine, not to mention pro bono legal services, volunteer work and donations related to diversity.

Working with our Compliance Committee, BMA Diversity has taken a strong stance in cases where inappropriate conduct involving discrimination has been detected. We have a communications channel that can be used to report misconduct and inappropriate situations securely and anonymously.

We also know that we have to think of the future of the planet, and that volunteer work makes a difference.

To give back to society as a whole, through actions that lead to deep and long-lasting change, is the mission we have taken on in BMA Inspiration. The program supports education, culture, and entrepreneurship that has social impact in three ways: pro bono work, offering free legal services to those in need; volunteer work, in campaigns where our people contribute to a variety of social causes; and BMA Solidarity, a project that focuses on opportunities for our people to lend a helping hand to colleagues within the BMA firms. We believe these are tools that have true impact in the effort to make the world a better place.

Some of our most recent actions with our partner institutions, all focused in the area of social responsibility, are described below.

In 2022, the Inhotim Institute, which holds one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary Brazilian art – and is the largest outdoor museum in the world, located in Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerais – became one of BMA Inspiration’s partner organizations. Not only was ownership of the entire art collection of the institute’s founder, Bernardo Paz, definitively transferred to the Inhotim collection, the institute’s governance model was redesigned to ensure the museum’s sustainability and continuity over the years, to include representatives of civil society in its management, and to democratize access to its activities.

The concern over good governance – which is here to stay in both the private and public spheres of the economy – relates to better use of resources and generating positive results for society. In the Inhotim project, good governance translates into more programs for the public, inter-institutional collaboration, integration between culture and the environment, a more active presence in the local community, and a greater role for civil society in the life of the museum.

BMA Inspiration, which donated more than 359 hours of legal services performed by 27 lawyers, played an essential part in designing and implementing the Inhotim Institute’s new governance structure which, in addition to modernizing its management model, through the formation of a new board of governors, concentrated on financial sustainability. The aim is to ensure the continuity of the largest open air museum in the world, expanding its social impact and raising Brazil’s profile in terms of access to art and culture.

During the last year, BMA advised Ashoka, which is a organization that identifies and supports the world's leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community that embraces these new frameworks to build an "everyone a changemaker world”. In Brazil, the company was focused to improve its diversity and inclusion program to have a better representative work force. BMA advised Ashoka on the legality of carrying out inclusive selection processes. Based on the legislation and recent case law understanding on the subject, BMA addressed the feasibility of exclusive job openings for minority groups, as an affirmative policy for the inclusion of these groups in the job market. With the legal advice, Ashoka was able to implement exclusive jobs openings for minority groups, as BMA concluded that such actions have legal support.

Recently, a bill of law proposing the free distribution of sanitary napkins to women in need was voted by the Brazilian congress. This bill was inspired by a social work realized by three young girls and their non-governmental organization "Girl Up Elza Soares". Considering the social impact caused by the project, a Producer proposed to them to sing an option agreement licensing their personality rights (voice and image) with the intent to launch an audio-visual production.

BMA not only reviewed this agreement but also had major relevance on the negotiation with the Producer in order to protect the girls' best interests (what result in an increase of 50% of their compensation). This agreement opens the opportunity to the Producer to raise investors’ money to launch the product, what, besides being able to provide to these girls a fine compensation, will also disseminate important health information to women in need.

We also helped CREN to identify legal arguments that would allow the entity to renegotiate the terms of an Agreement executed with the Municipal Health Department of São Paulo (“SMS/SP”). The Agreement provided for the transfer of funds in exchange for the entity to meet stipulated targets related to preventing malnutrition in children and teenagers. Since the funds transferred were insufficient to fulfill the stipulated targets, the entity needed help to renegotiate the Agreement terms. After holding some meetings with the entity to collect information and obtain the relevant documents, we analyzed the possible scenarios for the entity to renegotiate the partnership and prepared a draft letter for the entity to send to SMS/SP.

BMA has worked with Endeavor, whose mission is to accelerate entrepreneurs who accelerate the Brazil’s growth, in the recent years in multiple tax aspects, both in the administrative and in the judicial level. The main topics addressed were (1) the taxation on financial revenues and the strategy to rectify the amounts due in the last 5 years; (2) the non-taxation of revenues related to services provided by Endeavor; (3) renewal of the certificate to exempt tax on donations. BMA team was responsible for defining all the legal strategies related to the above-mentioned topics, all of them ended up being successful. We have also got a favorable decision on behalf of Endeavor that (1) substantially reduced the taxation on its revenues; (2) authorized the refund of a considerable amount of taxes overpaid in the past, whose resources are relevant to enable Endeavor to keep pursuing its mission.

BMA also helped Patronos, an entity without profitable purposes, which aims at the development of the academic community at UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), attracting donations that are invested in the financial market. The respective income of such investments are used in the objectives of Patronos. Our main objective was to help Patronos with the more efficient tax structure for the development of its activities, advising on the tax treatment of donations, procedures for tax exemptions and other measures to implement the project.

At BMA we believe that people make us what we are. Investing in our professionals’ training is key to providing excellent service to our collaborators and clients. Our program BMA Education was designed with the support of the Saint Paul Business School, is intended to give our professionals the training they need to be “BMA Lawyers”: the focus is on excellence, quality and providing a valuable learning experience.

BMA Education effectively enables our lawyers to become better qualified, more insightful, curious and multidisciplinary, and more keenly interested in applying theoretical knowledge to the efficient solution of real problems. BMA Education offers 32 subjects each year, and it represents our seal of excellence and quality – BMA Quality.

Our professionals are our most valuable asset, and so we also have programs that focus on practical career development, and we frequently hold internal events to share professional experiences and make practical legal knowledge available to all our partners and associates.

Created in 2011 as part of the BMA’s Intern Program, Roda Viva provides a space for our senior partners to share their experience with our interns. Twice a year, interns are welcomed to an informal chat with senior members of the firm, to talk about subjects such as careers, professional concerns and aspirations, and personal and professional lives.

Project Cases is another initiative implemented to allow all attorneys to benefit from knowledge gained in BMA’s most successful cases, forming a type of collective memory of the firm’s leading transactions. The project is conducted by partners involved in the cases and highlights the insights they gained in each matter.

Thanks to our solid relationships with some of the best law firms in the US, the UK and other European countries, along with BMA’s bursary program and our partners’ international contacts, we encourage associates to study at top universities abroad and to extend their experience through internships and visiting associate placements with firms abroad. In parallel, here in Brazil, we are ready to welcome foreign lawyers interested in gaining experience with BMA – a reference in the local legal market – and promoting cultural and legal exchanges.

We are signatories to the Global Compact, the largest business sustainability initiative in existence. In doing so, we became one of a network of enterprises and organizations that have chosen to adopt a sustainable business model, with more than 1000 members in Brazil and 15,000 around the world.

Our firm is committed to making the Global Compact and its 10 universal principles a pillar of our strategy, culture and practices, to sustain not just our business, but especially our society and our planet.

Please check our 2022 Social Responsibility Report here.