Founding Partner of Monteiro Rusu Advogados, Roberto Pekelman Rusu glimpses over the last four years of the firm existence and highlights the mission, overcome challenges and expectations for the near future.

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Monteiro Rusu from your competitors?

We define ourselves as a specialized law firm boutique in financial, capital markets and trade transactions of high complexity.

In every step of the process, our clients count on direct involvement of a partner. This is not only a marketing speech, but consists in one of our main cornerstone.

In this sense, we can point out two strong pillars: (a) team with high-level of expertise; and (b) partners involvement “door to door”.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

We can say that our Banking and Capital Markets areas and Corporate Law (including M&A) are growing organically as a positive response to the economic revival after the pandemic.

Due to current major discussions about tax reform, our Tax and Social Security departments are prepared to take this opportunity and assists our clients on benefitting from this domestic transition.

Considering the pillars mentioned on the previous answer, our firm expects to find new opportunities for our Real Estate and Litigation and Arbitration areas. The partners and teams expertise allied with a senior attendance certainly reverts to strengthen other businesses related to our main practice fields: financial and corporate transactions.

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

In order to duly attend our clients, we are growing our teams organically and looking for lateral partner, provided that our pillars are respected and as a response to each and every opportunity presented by and as to better serve them;

Furthermore, on the opposite direction of the market, we are duplicating our office structure to properly attend the growing demand.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

We founded Monteiro Rusu in Aug. 2016. At that time, the partners idealized an office with high technology structure as to allow our lawyers to work from any part of the globe with all the necessary support and security to assure the confidentiality required by our activity and our clients.

The pandemic scenario endorsed that we could keep providing our services the same way we were doing before. All lawyers are duly equipped to continue rendering our services with the same quality.

During the pandemic, it was common to use virtual technology instead of presential meetings and we set a new bar for distance attendance without any negative impact.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We may point out that some of our partners have financial background, not only legal, which allows us to provide a distinct analysis and more complete understanding of our clients’ businesses, resulting in more innovative and efficient solutions. A solid proof of adding value to our clients is our strong credentials along with a considerable recurrence and long term relationship.

However, considering the high level of confidentiality involved in most of the cases we worked for, it is difficult to expressly disclose an example.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

Certainly. A client-lawyer relationship is all about confidence and stability and that is how we can help our clients with strategic advice.

We have the opportunity to better know our clients and provide them with more suitable and accurate advice by nurturing long term relationships and offering constant and direct participation of our partners.

With respect to our positioning in the next three years and considering our growing strategy, we see our firm moving from a specialized boutique into a corporate full service law firm.