Brazilian law firm Lefosse recruited an experienced tax partner for its busy tax practice as the full-service law firm continues to chart an ambitious growth plan.
Vinicius Jucá joins from TozziniFreire Advogados, another large Brazilian firm, where he was a partner for nearly a decade. Associate Pietro Rondó will follow Jucá to Lefosse. Both are based in São Paulo.
With the addition of Jucá, Lefosse’s tax practice now has more than 75 legal professionals, including 11 partners.
TozziniFreire chief executive Fernando Serec told Law.com International that the firm thanks Jucá for his service and wishes him luck on this “new path.” He added that his firm’s tax team has been significantly reinforced in recent years with the hire of several new partners, including Renata Emery, who joined in 2021 to co-head the practice. All told TozziniFreire has 11 partners and more than 60 lawyers dedicated to tax, he said.
The Brazilian tax system is notoriously complex, making that practice area one of fierce and ongoing competition for talent in the country.
“The practice of tax litigation involves the entire business cycle and requires a technically strong service, but with a practical vision, with the development of strategies that best represent the client’s position in complex cases,” Jucá said in a statement.
One of the reasons Jucá was attracted to Lefosse, he said, was the firm’s multidisciplinary approach and expansion plans.
Lefosse has been on a hiring spree since Rodrigo Junqueira assumed the managing partner role at the firm for a three-year term that started in July.
Since then, Lefosse has lured lawyers from local rivals to expand its project finance, restructuring, insolvency and dispute resolution practices; poached a five-lawyer tax team; landed a six-person life science and health care team; and signed a competition and antitrust attorney to open an office in the Brazilian capital of Brasília.
Lefosse employs more than 400 legal professionals, most of whom are based in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. All told, the firm has 56 equity partners.
“Vinicius Jucá is a professional with recognized national and international performance,” said Junqueira. “His admission strengthens our expansion and service provision strategy in the tax field, a field that stands out due to the growing demand in strategic cases.”
Jucá is admitted to practice law in both Brazil and New York. He has more than 20 years of experience in administrative and tax court litigation, with a focus on indirect taxes such as Brazil’s tax on manufactured products. He serves clients in the food and beverage, mining, cosmetics, automotive, infrastructure and energy industries.
Before joining TozziniFreire and now Lefosse, Jucá worked for 12 years at another leading Brazilian law firm, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, and was a visiting attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York.
In addition, Jucá teaches tax law courses at Fundação Getulio Vargas, a top Brazilian university.
