Baptista Luz appoints two to partner and restructures areas
Baptista Luz Advogados has promoted M&A and VC partners and appointed two new practice directors
Baptista Luz announced a restructuration in the Law firm aimed to award their lawyers and reinforce some practices.
Érico Lopes Tonussi (pictured first on the left) has been promoted to M&A partner. He joined the firm in the last quarter of 2019 as a senior associate just a few months before COVID-19 hit. Despite this, Erico participated in many transactions that overcame a wide range of challenges due to the pandemic’s pressures. The practice closed a record number of forty-two transactions. He has over ten years of experience in different areas of Corporate Law, especially mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and capital markets. He has worked as a lawyer in large and medium-sized firms in São Paulo, participating in significant domestic and cross-border transactions involving companies from different market segments. Tonussi holds a Masters Degree in Corporate Law from USP, a Masters Degree (LL.M.) from the University of Chicago and is the author of articles published in different legal journals.
Sérgio Cury Meirelles (pictured second from the left) is the firm’s new Venture Capital partner. He is a Corporate and Venture Capital lawyer with over seven years of experience both in Brazil and the USA. Meirelles specializes in international structuring and venture capital operations, advising startups in financing rounds, international corporate structuring, corporate governance, investor relations, and compensation to employees and founders. He assisted countless startups from Latin America and the US to close rounds of investment and advises family offices and multi-family offices with international structuring for Brazil and abroad investments. Initially worked at an M&A boutique in São Paulo, and three years in the USA, at Private Advising Group, PA., a Miami-based firm.
Fernanda Maellaro Ferreira (pictured second from the right) has been appointed Tax technical director. She began her career in the Tax area of a boutique firm. Afterwards, she worked for three years at a Tax consulting company focusing on indirect taxation. She is a Tax Law specialist, particularly that which is called “indirect taxes” (IPI and ICMS).
Fabiano de Melo Ferreira (pictured first on the right) is the new Contracts and Fintechs technical director. He worked for 13 years in the São Paulo Stock Exchange – two of them at BM&FBovespa Market Supervision – and six years in a medium-sized law firm, with emphasis on consulting in capital market regulation and self-regulation, capital market administrative litigation, structured finance, corporate advice to public and non-public companies and business contracts.
Baptista Luz Advogados also announced the absorption by the end of 2020 of SV Wainstein Advocacia, a boutique law firm in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, specialized in Corporate and Tax Law. Sandro Wainstein, founding and managing partner of SV Wainstein, has become the head of the Corporate Law practice in Porto Alegre. Wainstein started his career in a large multinational consulting firm in 1996, and for the past ten years has focused his career on Tax and Corporate law. He has worked on several strategic M&A transactions in the South of Brazil and has also been involved in the local Venture Capital scene.
