Comparative Guide
Employment and Labour Law
Portugal
Inês Arruda & Miguel Riço dos Santos
Active across the renewable energy, transport, logistics, infrastructure, and healthcare sectors, Pérez-Llorca advises Portuguese and international banks, sponsors, and institutional investors on major project development and finance, as well as secondary-market acquisitions and refinancings. Practice head Carlos Vaz De Almeida routinely acts for banks, investment funds and sponsors in big-ticket project finance deals, PPPs, and infrastructure development. Débora Melo Fernandes is noted for her public law and regulatory expertise, with a special emphasis on the energy, mobility and infrastructure segments. Gonçalo Bargado assists with concession and PPP contracts, and Joana Alves de Abreu, who joined from Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva & Associados in January 2025, is skilled in energy and infrastructure-related financing deals.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘Excellent team and excellent collaboration with the client.’
- 'A firm recognised in the market in general – nationally and internationally – as being capable of responding to sectors and issues involving innovation and disruption, with a team with professional, academic and public experience in the area of public law and regulation.'
- 'From the outset, it has been a winning bet. This is a team that combines in-depth legal knowledge with a (somewhat unusual) ability to immediately understand the client's business, its transformations, the regulatory impacts of these and the various underlying business models.'
- 'Pérez-Llorca has consistently offered something that not all large, reputable law firms are able to offer: strategic vision, highly specialised legal knowledge, experience in public policy and a particular aptitude for understanding and providing legal advice on all the disruptive issues that we deal with. This is a rare combination, and it makes all the difference.'
- 'Débora Melo Fernandes' work involves leadership and a deep understanding of the various dossiers, demonstrating unusual strategic and legal skills, with great cross-cutting expertise in various areas of law. I would highlight Débora's ability to contribute to the definition of legal solutions, with enormous creativity, pragmatism and confidence when it comes to resolving the legal challenges raised. Few people, if any, in Portugal have such extensive and cross-cutting legal knowledge about electric mobility in Portugal.'
Key clients
- Limestone
- Banco Montepio
- Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
- Chint Solar
- Alpha Trains
- Saeta Yield
- Aquila Capital
- Elecgas
- M&G Real Estate
- Mobi.E
- JCDecaux – Mobiliário Urbano e Publicidade
- Governo Regional dos Açores
Work highlights
Advising Infravia Capital Partners in connection with the acquisition of Prosolia’s business in Portugal (including one of the largest solar plant projects in Europe, located in Alentejo, Portugal).
Advising Green Arrow / Five-E on the drafting, negotiating and closing of a complex EPC contract for solar PV plants with multiple specificities.
Advising on the management and execution of several key projects launched by Mobi.E for the expansion of the electric mobility network in Portugal, including the concession contracts to private operators for the development of the pilot network of charging points, the tenders for the installation and development of charging hubs and the tenders for the installation and development of ultra-fast charging stations, all distributed throughout the country.
Practice head
Carlos Vaz de Almeida
Other key lawyers
Débora Melo Fernandes; Gonçalo Bargado; Joana Alves de Abreu; João Soares Carvalho; Gonçalo Branco Pardal