Edmundo Nejm, a Brazilian Lawyer Takes a New Road

This is a two-part story on Edmundo Nejm, one of Brazil’s most distinguished lawyers, who is taking a new road in this international business career. Part 1 describes his joining Globond International’s worldwide membership organization for leaders in their field, and gives his biographical highlights. Part 2 is a Latin Lawyer article that explains his transition from the giant law firm to his independent business approach.

Globond Biography

Edmundo Nejm is a Globond International member in São Paulo with a passion for advising people and organizations and providing tailor-made services, in Brazil and worldwide, regarding the legal, business and financial issues that make a difference in his clients’ professional, personal and philanthropic success.

Edmundo is a seasoned lawyer and consultant who sees the big picture as well as key details, has sensitivity to interculturally matters, creatively uncovers opportunities and solves problems, balances effectiveness and efficiency, and exemplies the consummate lawyer’s profile (rational thinking, personal touch, assertive support, and integrity standards).

Attending St. Paul’s, a British primary and middle school in São Paulo and an American high school led to Edmundo embarking on an international career path and becoming adept at intercultural work. From his parents, he acquired explicit ethical standards, integrity and values, which have been essential in his professional success and conduct of his life. Through his father, who owned a school and also taught at a government-owned school, he absorbed a sense of responsibility to help individuals and the larger community.

Edmundo conducts an independent legal and consultant private practice in São Paulo. His specialties include corporate finance, structuring international transactions, international capital markets, banking, project financing and advice on complex negotiations]. His ideal clients are creative businesspeople, with groundbreaking projects and plans.

In his more than 20-year career in the legal profession, Edmundo has distinguished himself in the specialties of global securities and banking law, internationally and especially in Brazil. He was a Partner and the Head of Finance Practice in Lefosse Advogados, São Paulo Office, which works in cooperation with Linklaters LLP, a major global legal practice. On his way to becoming a Linklaters Partner, he held the positions of Foreign Visiting Lawyer (seconded by Pinheiro Neto Advogados, a leading law firm in Brazil, to Linklaters offices in London and New York), Associate (New York), and Senior Associate (São Paulo).

In the areas of Brazilian securities and banking law, Edmundo represented a wide variety of investment banking, commercial banking, and large corporate clients. He developed a deep expertise in equity and debt offerings of Brazilian private and governmental issuers – both domestic and offshore – and Brazilian banking regulation – especially regulatory aspects of foreign bank activities in Brazil and bank derivatives activities, project finance, asset securitization, and structured finance transactions. He started his career at Pinheiro Neto, Advogados, going from Law Clerk to Associate to Sênior Associate, in São Paulo.

Edmundo has had a significant role in these important transactions of his clients, including Banco Industrial e Comercial S.A., RBS Consortium, Noble Group, Banco VR, various asset management companies, International Finance Corporation, and Asian Development Bank.

Edmundo is well known in Brazil for working closely with his clients to achieve their goals and protect them, thus essentially becoming a virtual in-house lawyer. In 2008, Chambers Legal, a magazine that ranks law offices and lawyers worldwide, named him as a “Leading Individual in Capital Markets and Banking-and-Finance.”

Edmundo’s higher education started with a LL.B at the São Paulo University. Subsequently he earned the LL.M at the University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. He is a member of the Bar of São Paulo.

Edmundo’s interests include jogging, tennis, golfing, reading and collecting cars.

Nejm Leaves Linklaters (November 5, 2009, www.LatinLawyer.com)

Finance partner Edmundo Nejm has left Lefosse Advogados, the Brazilian arm of Linklaters, to set up his own practice, after 12 years with the UK firm. Nejm officially left on 1 November, and is currently considering his options of practicing solo or founding a small firm. At Lefosse, the head of the finance practice Roberto Vianna and the two other finance partners will pick up Nejm's work.

The proportion of his time spent on management work, as opposed to client work, had begun to feel too heavy, says Nejm. "I believe there's a huge demand for tailor-made services, and in a large firm you have less freedom to provide those," he says. "I wanted to focus more on the legal work, particularly on boutique corporate advice, than on firm strategy."

He resists the idea that the global structure of Linklaters exacerbated the problems. "I think the issues for me would have been the same in any large Brazilian firm." However, he says, "there's a great deal of really exciting work going on outside what I had previously thought of as 'the universe' - the kind of work being done in large firms - and I think that demand is not being tapped." He notes that he has not ruled out joining an existing firm, "If I think its structure will allow me to develop my work and clients".

For the type of advice he would like to provide, he noted smaller firms were able to be more flexible on fees: "For certain types of work - for long negotiations for example - such a firm can really add value. For IPOs or other such large deals though you do need the structure of a large firm."

Although he initially imagined setting up a solo practice, now, he says, "The demands are such that I'm rethinking that plan." Where do you see yourself in a year, ideally? "I would say in a firm of about three or four partners and 20 associates - that would provide the structure to take on a certain volume of work without losing the boutique focus." Right now, he says, he is assessing the market and looking for office space near São Paulo's Faria Lima, rather than actively hiring.

Vianna, who has been head of Lefosse's finance and projects practice since February this year, when Nejm stepped down to focus on client work, says that the firm considers clients to belong to the firm, not individuals, and thus "the work Edmundo had been doing has been redistributed among the other partners, and we continue to serve our clients as we always have done."

Alongside Vianna in the Brazilian finance practice are Eduardo Lima and Jose Eduardo Manassero, with Latin American practice head Ray Fisher splitting his time between New York and São Paulo to lead on the firm's international finance work in the region.

Nejm spent ten years at Pinheiro Neto Advogados a trainee and associate, including a year working as a foreign associate at Linklaters in London and New York. In 1996 he joined the UK firm's New York office, and returned to Brazil in 1998 to help set up the São Paulo office. He became a partner in 2001 when Linklaters signed cooperation arrangements with Goulart Penteado, Iervolino e Lefosse (now Lefosse Advogados).

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Edmundo Nejm, a Brazilian Lawyer Takes a New Road

Globond Biography

Nejm Leaves Linklaters (November 5, 2009, www.LatinLawyer.com)