Our correspondent in Sao Paulo, Eduardo Boccuzzi, tells us all about working in an immense country where you have to keep up-to-date with every change to stay at the top.
'A carnival of tax laws' - this is how Brazilian lawyer Eduardo Boccuzzi talks about his daily work. Based in Sao Paulo, Eduardo says the biggest challenge of being a lawyer in Brazil is the size of the country, and the diversity of legal rules this entails. 'The immensity of Brazil is palpable not only for lawyers but for their clients as well, whatever their activity is. Our regulations can vary greatly from one place to another. For tax law it is particularly acute, as they can be influenced by federal law, state law and local law. With such a huge system, there are changes every month. It is always a challenge keeping up-to-date'.
To tackle this, Eduardo has helped to establish what he calls a 'boutique lawfirm' of just the right size to give each client what they need. 'We like to have a close relationship with our clients', he says, 'our firm has grown a lot in almost twenty years; we now have more than fifteen lawyers but we are also careful not to grow too fast. We want to be available for our clients all the time and that means not rushing into marketing: it is more important to keep your present clients than to find new ones.'
How do they keep their clients? 'Whenever they need you, you must be around. As time goes by, you learn more and more about your clients and their businesses, so whenever they call you it's much easier for them to explain what the problem is. They know that you know their business. You know the background of all their operations. So they prefer this stable relationship too.' Eduardo says such an attitude guarantees efficiency. 'You have time to concentrate on the cases you handle. Every case is peculiar, singular, we can devote the needed time and expertise. You can be an excellent lawyer but if you have too many cases you will not give your best to each of them. We tend to refuse taking thousands of cases from big clients but instead invite them to contact us for one precise case where we know we can be very efficient.'
Eduardo's expertise has allowed him to be the port of entry to Brazil for many foreign clients. 'Most of our work is referred to us by foreign lawfirms, mostly from Europe and the United States. For example, an American lawfirm can ask us to help their client in purchasing a business in Brazil. We receive a very big workload from Eurojuris members, from big cities and little towns. The network is amazing, it is a very important tool for every lawfirm. Today, clients want a lawyer with a network, in case there is something to do abroad, even before they start doing international business. So being part of the network not only allows us to receive work from others, but also to look serious to our domestic clients.'
