20 lawyers including chairman Rui Amendoeira and five other partners have joined Portuguese firm Vieira de Almeida & Associados (VdA) in a mass migration from Miranda Correia Amendoeira & Associados. This follows the announcement in June that the chairman, and partners Samuel Almeida, Rui Andrade, Paulo Costa, Raúl Cerveira and João Fialho would be leaving the Miranda Alliance, with their destination unannounced.
The Miranda Alliance has traditionally been focused on work within the African continent, and the lawyers in question have a wealth of experience in the region, in oil and gas matters particularly. The move suggests that VdA will bolster its own international presence, and under the name VdA Atlas will push forward its international strategy into Africa.
How Miranda will respond and whether it can maintain a presence on the continent is unclear at this point. When questioned on this topic, founding partner of Mozambican firm Pimenta & Associados, part of the Miranda network, downplayed the consequences of the departure, saying that ”our team has not changed as none of the partners who left the firm were involved in Mozambique.”
