PRACTICE AREAS

Albuquerque & Associados possesses notable experience in advising clients in the field of administrative law. Services in this area are provided by the firm’s Public Law Department, headed by Alexandre de Albuquerque, who holds a Master’s degree in legal-political studies (Administrative Law).

Services in this field have included work for private and public clients in highly varied areas of administrative law, with a special focus on public procurement contracts, public works contracts and public service concessions, and particularly on project finance.

The firm has assisted various public authorities in a wide range of administrative and legislative procedures, and its members have contributed to the drafting of legislation a range of issues, especially in the field of public procurement.

Public Procurement
Albuquerque & Associados has wide accumulated noteworthy experience in the field of public procurement, having frequently advised both tenderers and contracting authorities.
Legal services provided over several decades by both Albuquerque & Associados and its individual members have encompassed virtually the entire range of procurement: concessions for public contracts relating to motorways, seaports and airports, shipping, offshore oil prospecting, and public service telecommunications, procurement of defence equipment by the Portuguese Armed Forces, and the supply of IT products and advertising and the supply of, medical and pharmaceutical products.
The firm has been involved in advising bidders and private contractors on contracts, as well as and public bodiesassisting public authorities, and has also been involved in drafting a significant body of legislation in this field, as well as tender documents and contract specifications. Members of the firm have also sat on selection boards for open tendering procedures.

Planning Law
Albuquerque & Associados is regularly engaged on work in the multidisciplinary field of planning law. The firm and its members have has advised clients of all types in a number of related areas, including large-scale compulsory purchase processes, zoning and planning permission, particularly for hotels, tourist developments, residential developments and industrial facilities (such as chemicals, car plants and power stations).
As in other fields, Albuquerque & Associados and its individual members have advised private clients, including major Portuguese conglomerates and multinationals, as well as public authorities, with which it has collaborated on the drafting of key legislation in this area.

Administrative Disputes
Albuquerque & Associados has extensive experience and special expertise advising private and public clients on a range of administrative and fiscal law procedures.
In addition to its services in the fields of public procurement, and environmental and planning law and tax law, the firm  has assisted its clients on a wide variety of cases, including tax proceedings, judicial reviews cases, public procurement suits – particularly relating to public works contracts and concessions and public service concessions – and administrative liability claims, and advises in on injunction or interim proceedings pursuant relating to such these issues, as well as on arbitration proceedings in the same fields. Albuquerque & Associados has a number of ongoing cases at the various administrative and fiscal courts.

Energy and Natural Resources
Albuquerque & Associados has been involved in a wide variety of procedures relating to energy and natural resources, as well as advising. This has included advice on the privatization of energy utilities,  and participating in the drafting of legislation in these fields, through commercial operations, construction of power supply facilities and other activities.
The firm also provides constant legal support to many organizations in the energy sector, especially in  petrochemicals, and has taken part in public procurement procedures for related service concessions. We have also been engaged for arbitration proceedings between organizations in this sector.

Environmental Law
Albuquerque & Associados has for many years advised public and private clients in the field of environmental law.
The firm advises Portuguese and foreign organizations on the application of Portuguese and EU environmental law, particularly that relating to on issues of air and soil pollution resulting from industrial and port operations. Another important area of activity is waste disposal, especially of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Privatization
The Firm has a long tradition of work in this area, having been involved in many privatization programmes. It has acted for important major Portuguese companies groups and some of the largest foreign leading multinationals on a number of privatization programmes, encompassing such sectors involving some of the largest companies in the energy, insurance, banking, transport and chemicals sectors.
Some of the firm’s members have also worked for the administrative authorities in these areas, taking part in on the drafting of legislation in this field.

Regulation
In providing its clients with a comprehensive service amongst the various services it provides its clients, the Firm Albuquerque & Associados has frequently been called upon to defend their interests in dealings with regulatory authorities, particularly in the banking, chemicals, energy, securities, transport and telecommunications sectors in dealings with both the Portuguese and EU regulatory authorities, in notification and claims procedures and in responding to proceedings brought by national and community regulators.
In addition, the firm and some of its members have also been instrumental in organizing major events in this area, including courses on regulation with the participation of some of Portugal’s most distinguished legal figures, from academe and the judiciary and academe.

Contact

Alexandre de Albuquerque