TTR In The Press
Iberian Lawyer
April 2022, Michael Heron
Portugal’s Rainmakers
PLMJ ended 2021 at the top of the M&A rankings, with an astounding 43 deals and a total value of €6 billion*. Despite Diogo Perestrelo’s and Duarte Schmidt Lino’s high visibility in the market and the focus of this interview, they were quick to point out they make up just one third of the firm’s six partner strong contingent. It is a team that was restructured two years ago, to include the Porto based fee earners, and focus on high value deals. As this article uncovers, it appears to be a strategy that is paying off.
2021 was a great year for PLMJ regarding M&A work, was it better than you were both expecting?
Diogo Perestrelo:
I think we are always very positive and optimistic but we did not expect such a good year for 2021. It was a record for us in terms of deal values, and the volume of transactions. We were always betting, myself and Duarte, on what we thought would be the outcome of 2021, at the start of the year. But both of us were very happy with the outcome. We used to have four separate teams at PLMJ for Corporate/M&A work, but two years ago, we made some internal changes and consolidated everyone into one team. We are six partners in this team including our Porto office. This has been very positive in terms of our efficiency and sharing knowledge. So, I think we were prepared for the interesting and successful year we had last year, because of the strong group we put in place two years ago.
Duarte Schmidt Lino:
2021 was a great year and a record year but we have also been more diligent and transparent with reporting our transactional work in real-time to the market. So it may seem that there was a big jump in 2021 compared to the year before, but we can also attribute our increased reporting on deals as a determining factor. One of our bigger challenges has been to maximise the use of our team’s resources. This is with regards to the type of work and the choice of opportunities we are faced with. When the market is hot and you are faced with many avenues, there is a cost of opportunity to consider when deciding on which work to move forward with. What we have now, since the restructuring of the team, are six partners that all trust each other and that choose the work together. Decisions are made on what we think the team is best suited to. This is a big difference compared to how we used to previously operate. Also, by treating Porto and our team there, as part of one single unit, we can allocate work more efficiently. Typically Portuguese law firms see their Porto office as local in terms of geography and focus on the market in the north of the country. Our strategy doesn’t follow this route, as our Porto lawyers, just like our Lisbon team, are global and advise on deals outside of their local market.
Source: Iberian Lawyer - Spain
