Miguel Pereira Coutinho joins Portuguese law firm Pragma as partner

Pragma Advogados has appointed Miguel Pereira Coutinho, formerly Senior Counsel at MFA Legal, as a new partner, reinforcing the firm’s focus on Criminal Law, Regulatory Offences, Compliance, and Internal Investigations.

With more than 20 years of legal practice, he has provided comprehensive legal support in the design and implementation of compliance programs, with a focus on criminal risk prevention, drafting internal policies and procedures, developing training plans, and implementing whistleblowing channels.

As a litigator, Miguel Pereira Coutinho has been involved in some of the most high-profile criminal cases of the past decade, including the “Caso Cardinal,” “Operação Labirinto,” the BPP case, the Alcochete training ground invasion, the “Cash-Ball” and “E-Toupeira” cases, the “Caso dos E-mails” and the BES proceedings, among others. His practice also covers regulatory offence litigation, representing clients before the Competition Authority, Bank of Portugal, CMVM (Portuguese Securities Market Commission), ASAE, ANAC, and ANACOM.

Before joining Pragma, he headed the Compliance and Internal Investigations practice at MFA Legal, and earlier served as Head of Economic Criminal Law, Regulatory Offences, Compliance, and Internal Investigations at Cuatrecasas, where he was also a member of the firm’s Scientific Council. He has lectured at the Lisbon Regional Council of the Portuguese Bar Association (2018-2022) and taught at the NOVA School of Law in the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure module of the Interdisciplinary Legal Practice course (2014-2017).

The lawyer holds specialized training in Economic and European Criminal Law (IDPEE – University of Coimbra Faculty of Law) and in Trial Technique and Strategy (National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Colorado, USA).

The firm said in a statement that “Miguel Pereira Coutinho has built an outstanding career and is widely recognized for his technical rigor, strategic vision, and excellence in handling criminal and corporate defense matters. With extensive experience in complex litigation, he brings to Pragma a wealth of knowledge advising companies, financial institutions, and individuals in criminal proceedings, internal investigations, regulatory enforcement, and economic and financial crime prevention.”