About

Joao Vicente Camarota is currently managing director and head of legal in South America for Morgan Stanley, covering Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. Camarota started his legal career at Mattos Filho, one of the biggest law firms in Brazil, specialising in corporate and capital markets law. After a brief stint at Sherman & Sterling in New York, he took up a position as executive director with Morgan Stanley. In his time with the international banking giant, Camarota has adapted his legal acumen to fit the needs of the business world. In fact, he believes that his biggest contribution has been ‘to bring the legal team closer to our business units’, and enable the legal team to ‘provide better service by getting closer to the front office’. As there is no official CEO in the South American region, Camarota sits on a committee with the heads of business units and the CFO, so that all functions are involved in the creation of strategic direction in the region. Having the voice of the legal team at this level in the bank is essential considering the growing importance of regulation in the Brazilian, and global, market. Financial institutions in particular have received extra scrutiny from regulators, and it is becoming ever more important for lawyers to be at the heart of any changes in order to advise their business peers of the risks of non-compliance. To the benefit of Morgan Stanley, Camarota is well known in the market and is able to predict or adapt to regulations as they change.