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Message from
the managing partner

JOSÉ EDUARDO CARNEIRO QUEIROZ

A firm in constant transformation

I n the past ten years, Mattos Filho has undergone intense transformation and evolution. We are a very different institution from the one we were a decade ago. Today, we are a firm that can offer its clients a multidisciplinary and coordinated service, having dedicated ourselves over the past few years to raising the quality and scope of our practices. Our greatest goal has always been to offer our clients high quality services. It is worthwhile remembering just how all this came about.

In 2009, our firm’s partners decided to change significant aspects of our organization. Firstly, we began to govern in a way that was wholly representative of our partners’ choices, allowing them to volunteer for management positions in the firm. It has, however, always been crystal clear that these positions are not intended as manifestation of power or importance; instead, they are regarded as responsibilities to shoulder on the road to achieving the firm’s objectives as a whole. Secondly, we chose to compensate our partners with the overall firm’s profits, regardless of the practice area, client or specific work they undertake. These changes were the cornerstones for what came later: they brought the partners more in line with each other and to the center of the firm’s priorities our clients’ demands and the firm’s objectives as an institution.

Based on these changes, we have been able to attract and retain highly talented individuals along three broad lines. Partners who have joined us from other firms, bringing different experiences and contributing generously to our shared learning, while also adapting to our way of doing things to the point that their integration is seamless. We have also developed and honed lawyers who have grown up with us and became partners. Finally, we continue to attract lawyers and interns to Mattos Filho. Having this focus on people and their development allows us to continue to make significant headway in a variety of areas and improve the quality and importance of practices that were smaller or that we did not have ten years ago, and they currently operate at the same standard as our more established practices.


Another factor in our growth has been the increase in our geographical presence. Our offices in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília have seen significant expansion, while on the international front, we have invested in our London office.

 

Infrastructure is another area in which we have invested heavily.

F our directors lead our current staff operation: Communications and Marketing, Human Resources, Finance and Facilities, and Technology and Learning, which work to the high quality standards required to serve our clients with the safety and quality they expect, providing our partners, associates and interns with the finest support possible.

Over this same period, we expanded our horizons and focused our attention on topics that are important to us. Our efforts in the realms of diversity, pro bono services and corporate social responsibility have increased greatly. We have striven to ensure our workplace is ever more receptive and diverse. To these ends, we have expended much thought on how to become more inclusive and have created affinity groups for women, the LGBTI+ community, people with disability and racial minorities. One important step in our pro bono work was the creation of a department in the firm exclusively for that purpose – Mattos Filho 100% Pro Bono – and which focuses on themes important to us, such as human rights and improving public administration.

We also support a series of institutions on the social responsibility front. This is all intended to give back to society all we have gained over the firm’s close to 27-year history. Our partners created Mattos Filho Institute, which is dedicated to having an impact on society and expanding people’s access to justice.

Now, our eye is on a new cycle. In line with a vision of the future that we have named Mattos Filho 2023, we are once again setting the challenge of improving. Improving as a firm, improving the services we provide to our clients, creating more opportunities for those who are with us and having a greater impact on society. We have a burning ambition to go further, forever. For that to happen, we are counting on you, our clients, professionals and friends!


José Eduardo Carneiro Queiroz