COMMUNICATION
NEWS AT ABREU ADVOGADOS
Abreu Advogados is the winner at the British Legal Awards, under the category of European Legal Team of the Year. The law firm is the only Portuguese Law firm to ever win this award, and to be shortlisted for three consecutive years. This award is part of the International Awards that are recognised as the most important and prestigious awards of all, which seek to distinguish Law Firms worldwide in different categories.
The British Legal Awards
The British Legal Awards are considered the most important and prestigious awards of all that seek to distinguish Law Firms worldwide, in different categories. The winners are chosen based on applications submitted by the firms themselves.
Abreu Advogados’ – winning Project
This nomination is the result of Abreu Advogados’ role in the creation of a real estate investment fund for the Municipality of Oporto (the second largest city in Portugal) to promote the reconstruction of one of its most problematic social housing neighbourhoods (“Bairro do Aleixo”), known for being one of the main drug dealing neighbourhoods and in need for urgent refurbishment. The aim of the fund is to ensure that the project is carried out with no public investment.
This nomination is the result of Abreu Advogados’ role in the creation of a real estate investment fund for the Municipality of Oporto (the second largest city in Portugal) to promote the reconstruction of one of its most problematic social housing neighbourhoods (“Bairro do Aleixo”), known for being one of the main drug dealing neighbourhoods and in need for urgent refurbishment. The aim of the fund is to ensure that the project is carried out with no public investment.
Project description
The Municipality transfers the property of the neighbourhood to the fund and receives in exchange (i) new houses for the relocation of the social neighbourhood’s residents or (ii) works required to refurbish other historic popular neighbourhoods (already owned by the Municipality) for the same relocation purposes. The fund will demolish the social houses after the relocation of the residents and will then build an emblematic high quality housing project in one of the best locations in Oporto.
The structure allows investors in the fund to deliver to the Municipality, in exchange for the participation units, houses that such investors were experiencing difficulty to place in the market. The social residents will improve their housing standards, as the Municipality set strict requirements for the eligible houses. This project was also a means to an end - by using a Sustainable Integrated Area Development, drug dealing and poverty would be eradicated, both being a complex problem and requiring a comprehensive approach, combining both economic and non-economic initiatives to achieve measurable impact.
The European Legal Team of the Year
Due to its characteristics, the project involved a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, experts in financial, public and tax law: Miguel Castro Pereira (Managing Partner) - overall responsibility, Sofia Santos Machado (Partner) - Financial Law, Manuela Silva Marques (Associate Lawyer) - Tax, Patrícia Viana (Associate Lawyer) - Real Estate, Cecília Anacoreta Correia (Associate Lawyer) - Public Law, and Ana Gouveia Martins (Of Counsel) - EU Law.
