IAB mourns the death of its former president

In an official statement, the Institute of Brazilian Lawyers (IAB) mourned the death, at the age of 91, of the organization’s former president Ricardo César Pereira Lira (pictured), who passed away last Tuesday (18/6). The current head of Casa de Montezuma, Sydney Limeira Sanches, has decreed three days of official mourning.

The lawyer’s legacy, according to Sanches, will remain in academia, where he contributed as a great legal thinker, and in the IAB, which had a dedicated president in Ricardo Lira. “He will continue to inspire the legal community and the generations fighting for a fairer and more equal country. His family, in the person of Magally and his brilliant son José Ricardo, receives our enormous affection and our commitment to honor the history of this great Brazilian,” he said.

A retired member of the Institute, the lawyer joined Casa de Montezuma almost 55 years ago and led it between 1992 and 1994. Ricardo Lira’s work has been celebrated by the IAB on several occasions. In 1995, the IAB awarded him the Teixeira de Freitas Medal, which recognizes the body of published work produced by the recipient, as well as his contribution to law and justice. Last year, the Institute also presented the jurist with the Levi Carneiro Medal, which is awarded to members who have more than 30 years of membership and dedication to the institution’s work.

With a brilliant legal career, Ricardo Lira was an attorney for the State of Rio de Janeiro and became an authority in the field of Urban Law. He graduated in Law in 1955 from the former University of the State of Guanabara, now the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). In 1972, he received his doctorate in law from the same university, where he dedicated himself to teaching and was responsible for training generations of lawyers. He was also vice-director of Uerj, director-general of the OAB/RJ Law School and scientific president of the Brazilian Civil Law Association (ABDC) since its creation.

Ricardo Lira leaves his wife, Magally Pereira Lira; two sons, Jerônimo José Pereira Lira and José-Ricardo Pereira Lira, who chairs the IAB’s Urban Law Commission and the OAB/RJ’s Special Commission on Urban Law and Real Estate Law; as well as three grandchildren, João Miguel Pereira Lira, Francisco Pereira Lira and João Roxo Pereira Lira.