TozziniFreire Advogados, based in São Paulo, has promoted a restructuring and litigation lawyer to partner. Luciana Faria Nogueira started working as partner as of the new year. Her appointment comes alongside that of Ana Cândida de Mello Carvalho, who focuses on government contracts and the defence and aerospace sectors.
Nogueira primarily advises creditors and investors. In her view, cases and laws in Brazil tend to favor debtors over creditors. “In other jurisdictions, the creditor may present a plan to restructure the company, a reorganization plan. And here in Brazil a plan must be submitted by the debtor company or must be accepted by the debtor company,” she explained. “If the debtor company does not accept it, they don’t have to explain why. They can say generally that is not good for the company somehow.”
Her appointment comes at a time in Brazil when an increase in insolvency and restructuring transactions is expected. “Brazil is facing an economic crisis. A lot of companies are going through reorganization proceedings. Those companies are different because they are companies that, one year ago, had good assets. [Often,] the company has assets when they go to reorganization proceeding, but they are facing cash flow problems.”
Nogueira's past firms include Correia da Silva Advogados, Rayes Fagundes & Oliveira Ramos Advogados Associados, and Leite de Barros Zanin Advocacia, all based in São Paulo.
Nogueira received her bachelor of laws from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 1998 and a degree in English from University of California, San Diego in 1999. She earned her master’s of laws from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 2001, focusing on civil litigation and also earned a master’s of laws in 2010 from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, focusing on business law.