Por: Latin Lawyer
Former Cascione Pulino Boulos Advogados partner Leonardo Magalhães Avelar has left the firm to launch a white-collar crime boutique, bringing one other lawyer from his former firm with him.
Emily Darby
Leonardo Magalhães Avelar, 39, launched Avelar Advogados last month. The firm specialises in corporate criminal law and criminal litigation in the areas of money laundering, tax and administrative offences. The firm opened with two partners and six associates, including former Cascione Pulino white-collar crime attorney Taisa Carneiro Mariano. She joins as partner.
Avelar specialises in white-collar crime matters affecting corporates, including criminal compliance. He often represents international and local clients before Brazil’s federal and supreme courts and has over two decades of experience. He joined the partnership at Cascione Pulino at the beginning of 2019, following an 18-year stint at local criminal boutique Moraes Pitombo Advogados, where he became a partner in 2004. Previously he also worked at local firm Huck Otranto Camargo.
With his new venture, Avelar says his aim is to develop a law firm that combines the personal touch of a boutique with a multidisciplinary approach similar to that of a full-service firm. The complexity of cases within the Brazilian market today demand “greater technical preparation and strategic vision,” adds Avelar, for which he says his boutique is well-equipped.
A spokesperson from Cascione Pulino told Latin Lawyer that the departures occurred in the context of a reorganisation of the firm’s partnership and wished the lawyers well. The firm’s white-collar crime practice continues under the leadership of associate Alexys Lazarou, the spokesperson added.
Cascione Pulino has seen the departure of a few of its partners in recent times. In September, public law partners Carolina Caiado and Paulo Renato Barroso left to launch a new government affairs practice in Brasília at rival firm Campos Mellos Advogados. Meanwhile, Veirano Advogados hired insolvency partner Paulo Campana Filho from Cascione Pulino just weeks before another partner left the latter to launch a capital markets boutique.
Cascione Pulino is known for its transactional strength in corporate and M&A, banking and project finance departments, among others. The firm counts 16 partners. Lawyers from its full-service offering recently acted on Brazilian fintech company Neon’s acquisition of the oldest stockbroker on Brazil’s B3 stock exchange.
Texto publicado originalmente em Latin Lawyer.