Uría Menéndez drops Portuguese surname after Proença de Carvalho departure

Uría Menéndez, which had been operating in Portugal under the name Uría Menéndez-Proença de Carvalho, will now be known solely as Uría Menéndez following the departure of Francisco Proença de Carvalho, the son of the founder of the Portuguese firm with which Uría merged in 2010. The firm maintains offices in Lisbon and Porto.

Present in Portugal since 2001, the law firm integrated Proença de Carvalho in 2010, at that time led by the well-known Daniel Proença de Carvalho. Alongside the then-president, his son Francisco and lawyers Nuno Godinho de Matos, Fernando Aguilar de Carvalho, Alexandre Mota Pinto, Eduarda Proença de Carvalho, and Filipa Loureiro joined the firm.

The departure of Proença de Carvalho was announced by the firm six months ago through a statement released to Portuguese media, although it only became effective at the end of August. According to the former Uría Menéndez partner, this marks the beginning of a new phase in his professional life, after 14 years with the company: “I am excited to begin building a new phase of my professional life as a lawyer, but not only that. I am confident that I will encounter opportunities, challenges, and experiences that I cannot yet foresee, but that life will undoubtedly offer.

He wrote on his social media profile that, “As I announced about six months ago, the last day of the ‘dear month of August’ was also my last day at Uría Menéndez. It has been 14 years of great collective success. I am proud to have been part of this Iberian team, especially for the opportunity to meet extraordinary people from various nationalities. It was also a unique opportunity to understand the workings and dynamics of international law.”

The lawyer, specializing in dispute resolution (litigation, economic criminal law, and arbitration), was born in Lisbon, holds a law degree from Católica, and has been involved in high-profile cases. He is the lawyer for former banker Ricardo Salgado and has also been involved in the BCP cases (representing the late Christopher de Beck), BPP (on Deloitte’s side due to alleged audit failures), CTT (with Carlos Horta e Costa and other clients), as well as the secret service case (with Nuno Vasconcellos), and he also defended Canadian economist Peter Boone in a case of manipulating Portuguese public debt.