Overview
Brazil presents unique challenges for U.S. companies and lawyers. It is the largest economy in Latin America and one of the most active enforcement environments in the hemisphere; the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation reshaped corporate compliance across the country and produced waves of DOJ and SEC enforcement against U.S.-listed companies with Brazilian operations. The Brazilian judicial and regulatory system operates in Portuguese, follows a civil law framework distinct from U.S. common law, and involves agencies (the TCU, CGU, CADE, CVM) that have no direct U.S. analogs.
Daniel Fridman has been doing substantive work in Brazil since 2008, reading and analyzing documents in Portuguese and working alongside Brazilian counsel on major investigations. At White & Case, he led a team of more than fifty lawyers and forensic accountants reviewing 1.4 million Portuguese-language documents and conducting seventy witness interviews in Brazil in five months, one of the most intensive Brazil-focused U.S. legal work streams of the Lava Jato era. That experience is not the kind a firm can approximate by sending a U.S. attorney with a translator.
Our Approach
Our Brazil practice is built on direct engagement with Brazilian law and the Brazilian legal community. We maintain active relationships with leading white-collar and corporate counsel in São Paulo and Brasília, who serve as local co-counsel on matters requiring Brazilian court proceedings or regulatory engagement. On the U.S. side, we bring the full weight of the firm's DOJ, SEC, and federal court expertise to cross-border matters.
For Brazilian companies seeking U.S. counsel on enforcement exposure, or U.S. companies seeking to navigate Brazilian investigations, we serve as the U.S. leg of a coordinated cross-border defense, fluent in both legal systems.
