Founding Partner

Sergio Bermudes founded the law firm, which takes his name, 1969.

His career has spanned almost 50 years during which time he has earned a reputation as one of Brazil’s most prominent trial lawyers and legal strategists.  He is renowned both for his courtroom skills, honed before national courts and domestic and international tribunals, and for the quality of his legal advice.

In the 1970’s, Brazil was governed by a dictatorship, and Sergio Bermudes won widespread public acclaim for his courageous representation of the widow of the journalist Vladimir Herzog who had died in unexplained circumstances whilst being detained by the military. In a  highly-charged case, the dictatorship suffered its first legal defeat, with the court holding that Herzog had been unlawfully killed whilst in the custody of the Brazilian Army.

By the 1980’s Sergio Bermudes was already one of Brazil’s leading names in civil litigation and corporate restructure, with a nationwide practice.  He was one of the main figures in the legal battle over the financial  rights of individuals whose savings accounts were frozen as part of the Brazilian government’s anti-inflation drives in the 1980’s and 90’s and which continued until it was finally settled in 2017.

The practice expanded rapidly and nowadays the firm has offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília and Belo Horizonte, staffed by over 130 lawyers, 120 interns and over 250 support personnel.

Sergio Bermudes is also an eminent professor of law. His first teaching post was that of Assistant Professor of General Theory of the State at the Faculty of Law of the Guanabara State University and, in the same year, he was appointed Professor of Civil Litigation at the Brazilian Faculty of Law (Faculdade Brasileira de Ciências Jurídicas) in Rio de Janeiro a post for which he granted tenure by the Federal Council of Education in 1971. In 1978, he was appointed Professor of Civil Litigation at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro where he still teaches and also sits as a member of the University Development Council.

He is frequently called upon to sit on Examination Panels for the appointment of public officials including judges, state and municipal attorneys (Rio de Janeiro) and others.

Sergio is a regular guest speaker at academic and professional conferences, seminars and other legal events, both in Brazil and abroad.

He was invited by the Federal Government, in 1985, to sit on a Law Commission, composed of five civil litigation experts, set up to review the Civil Procedure Code.

He sat, for two years, as a justice on the Regional Electoral Tribunal of Rio de Janeiro.

Listed in the Hall of Fame of Litigation in Brazil by Legal 500 Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award by Latin Lawyer Ranked star individual in Dispute Resolution at Chambers Brazil Listed as a litigation star by Benchmark Litigation Listed as a specialist lawyer in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution by Leaders League One of the Brazil's most admired lawyer according to Análise Advocacia

English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian

Member of the Institute of Brazilian Lawyers (Instituto dos Advogados Brasileiros) Member of the Brazilian Institute of Procedural Law (Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Processual) Member of the International Association of Procedural Law Member of the Ibero-American Institute of Procedural Law Member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers

Doctorate in the History of Roman, Canon and Lusitanian Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo (USP) Graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Guanabara State University (UEG), 1969

Sergio has published innumerable articles in specialist legal journals on issues of Civil Litigation, Civil Law, Constitutional Law, Commercial Law and Administrative Law.  Since 1996, he has been the editor in charge of updating the 18 volumes of the Commentary on the Civil Procedure Code (Comentários ao Código de Processo Civil) written by the late de Pontes de Miranda, and published by the Published by Forense, Rio. He is also the author of the following works:

Curso de Direito Processual Civil – Recursos (Civil Procedure -Appeals):  published by Borsoi, 1972 Iniciação ao Estudo do Direito Processual Civil (Introduction to Civil Procedure): Published by Liber Júris, 1973 Comentários ao Código de Processo Civil, Vol. VII (Commentary on the Civil Procedure Code): published by Revista dos Tribunais, 1975 e 1977 Caso Herzog: a sentença (Ruling on the ‘Herzog’ case), published by Salamandra, 1978 Estado de direito e direito de petição (the Rule of Law and the right to petition) published by Executive, 1978 Tutela jurisdicional da Liberdade (the Legal Protection of Freedom), published by the Bar Association – OAB, 1980 Direito Processual Civil – Estudos e Pareceres (Studies and Opinions on Civil Procedure): published by Saraiva, 1983, 1994 and 2002 Papel e organização de magistrados e advogados nas sociedades contemporâneas (The role and organization of judges and lawyers in contemporary societies), published by Associação Internacional de Direito Judiciário, 1991 Introdução ao Processo Civil: (Introduction to Civil Procedure) published by Forense, Rio de Janeiro, in five editions from 1995 onwards A Reforma do Código de Processo Civil (Reform of the Civil Procedure Code): published by Freitas Bastos, 1995, TRT, 1995 and Saraiva, 1996 and 2010 Sessão solene & conferências jurídicas (Formal sittings and legal conferences), published by TJPE, 2004 Reforma do judiciário pela emenda constitucional n. 45 (Reform of the judiciary by constitutional amendment), Forense, 2005 CPC de 2015: Inovações, Vols. I e II (the Civil Procedure Code of 2015 – innovations: published by GZ, 2016 and 2018, respectively