Employment Law
Advice to employers regarding employment relationships, employer compliance, employee discipline, employee terminations and layoffs, wage and hour issues, compensation issues (including commission arrangements), and employer obligations with respect to such statutes.
Advice to key employees, including review and negotiation of employment agreements and benefit packages; negotiation and implementation of option plans, bonus plans, profit sharing or phantom stock plans and other incentive or retention arrangements; assistance with change of ownership transitions; representation in connection with contract disputes, commission disputes, severance agreements, and releases; advice regarding restrictive covenants, work for hire agreements, and rights in employee inventions and other employee work product;
Negotiation and drafting of employee handbooks, employment agreements, independent contractor agreements, bonus compensation agreements (including stock options and phantom stock plans), commission arrangements, sales representative agreements, confidentiality and trade secret agreements, and severance agreements and releases; and
Litigation, including defense of employment discrimination, wrongful termination, and sexual harassment claims, and prosecution of claims against former employees in such areas as misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition.
Business Transactions
Our lawyers have exceptional depth and breadth of experience and skill in every legal discipline needed by a business enterprise. Whether your business is a start-up or a well established operation; whether it is a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited liability company, or a corporation; and whether it is closely-held or publicly-owned, the lawyers who will handle your matters are skilled at helping businesses deal with both day-to-day operational issues and game-changing events.
Our lawyers have successfully and efficiently handled the range of routine and unusual events that occur in the life of a business. We will help form your business, recommending the most appropriate entity and crafting the necessary formation documents and appropriate agreements among the principals; we will advise on the rules for hiring, compensating, and firing your employees; we will negotiate, draft, structure, or review business agreements that relate to your operation, including financing transactions, leases, relationships with vendors and suppliers, customers and clients, and licensors and licensees; we will assist you in satisfying your capital needs, including institutional borrowing and raising money from individual investors; we will advise and assist with protection of your trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets; we will help you to buy or sell your properties, divisions, assets, or stock; we will assist you in the negotiation and settlement of disputes; we will advise you when you need to bring in experts, accountants, estate planners, financial advisors, litigators, and others; and we will help you with your exit strategies, family succession, retirement planning, and much more.
We are your advisors and the guardians of your most valuable assets. We are here for you seven days a week and for as many hours as are required. Regardless of how large or small your business or the complexity of your transactions, we are pleased to be of assistance. We work as a team to combine our respective skills, and we strive for low-cost, efficient services. The more effective we are in our task, the less you should require legal assistance, and that is our sincere goal.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
We provide our clients with aggressive, effective, and cost conscious representation by experienced attorneys in all courts and most forums in Brazil. We also represent clients in alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation and arbitration.
Our seasoned attorneys, each of whom has at least 10 years of experience as a business litigator, have expertise in prosecuting and defending numerous types of disputes, including: breach of contract; fraud; taxes, including disputes regarding ownership, construction defects; employee misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets; intellectual property matters, including trademark and copyright infringement; antitrust, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices; regulatory matters, including administrative and professional licensure proceedings; corporate control battles and other equity ownership disputes; employee discrimination and harassment actions; bankruptcy preferences; probate litigation; conservatorship actions; and appellate matters. In addition, we provide pro-active, preventive counseling to help our clients improve their understanding of and compliance with today’s increasingly complex laws and regulations to minimize exposure to enforcement and legal actions.
By analyzing our clients’ business practices, recommending appropriate policies and measures to improve those practices, and working with clients to implement recommendations, we help our clients avoid litigation before the issues underlying potential disputes arise.
Tax Law
Fiore Brandão routinely represents clients in connection with numerous state and federal tax issues.
We represent companies in connection with tax planning and administration, accounting services and all tax legal question.
For additional information, please contact us.