Portugal’s VdA appoints new managing and senior partners

The new positions are the result of a recently approved amendment to the firm’s governance model and both appointees will take office in February 2022, the firm said in a statement.

Gomes Freire was already a member of VdA’s board of directors and will succeed João Vieira de Almeida as managing partner.

Her new role includes chairing the executive committee and leading the firm’s operational management, focusing on the business, the team, and results.

Gomes Freire joined VdA in 1996. A finance, M&A and real estate group executive partner, and a partner in the firm’s banking and finance practice, she has led several transactions, both in Portugal and abroad, mainly focused on the issue and placement of debt instruments, namely Euro Medium-Term Notes and preferential shares and hybrids.

She also works in securitization and other types of asset-backed transactions, and she also participated in the recapitalization of the Portuguese banking sector and on the inaugural application of a resolution measure under the Banking Recovery and Resolution Directive.

She holds a law degree from the University of Lisbon, and completed postgraduate studies in English Commercial Law at London University.

Before joining VdA she worked as an associate at McKenna & Co in London and at Azevedo Neves, Benjamim Mendes, Pereira de Miranda & Associados in Lisbon.

João Vieira de Almeida’s new position as senior partner includes chairing the board of directors, being responsible for strategic development, partnership management, and focusing on protecting and promoting the firm’s culture and sustainability drive.

“With these changes, dictated by its current size and complexity, VdA adopts an innovative model that results in a combined and collaborative leadership, dedicated to different aspects but with the same focus and ambition, based on a vision of leadership and long-term future,” the firm said.

A founding partner of the firm, João Vieira de Almeida’ is recognized as a leading high-end M&A partner, having acted as advisor to companies on many of Portugal’s most significant transactions.

He is credited for developing VdA from a small office with six lawyers to a firm with 450 professionals.

Commenting on her new role, Gomes Freire said she is “extremely honored and proud to have been appointed VdA’s future managing partner”, describing it as “a role I will perform with a great sense of mission and responsibility for the trust placed in me by my partners. We have a clear vision of the challenges faced by our clients and of the market’s demands, but we are also keenly aware of how important our people are and how the team should be empowered. We want to follow our vision and even enhance it, and that will be my main role”.

According to João Vieira de Almeida, “this is a natural succession process, in line with our vision regarding the project’s sustainability and continuity. My successor has all the right qualities to take on this enormously demanding role. I couldn’t be more confident and prouder of Paula Gomes Freire’s choice considering the esteem and appreciation I have for her personal qualities, but also because she embodies the empowerment of a new generation and the institutional vision we have of VdA”.

“We want to further assert our relevant role in the community and promote aspects of our Culture that we consider important, in line with the path that has already been taken, particularly in terms of Sustainability, and this will be my mission as senior partner,” he added.