Standard Terms of Business
1. General
- These standard terms of business, together with such modifications and/or supplemental provisions agreed between us in writing, shall apply to the provision of legal services by us to
- References to “we”, “us” or “our” shall be deemed as references to Abreu & Associados – Sociedade de Advogados, RL, registered with the Portuguese Bar Association under 28/93, with VAT number 503009482 and registered office at Av. Infante D. Henrique, 26, 1149-096 Lisboa.
- References to “you”, “your” shall be deemed references to the entity or person contracting our services, or to such other entity or person that we may agree in writing that shall be treated as our Client on a given matter.
2. Fees
- Generally our services are charged on a time spent Our hourly rates reflect the different experience and maturity of each lawyer, but they may also reflect other factors, such as the complexity of the matter, the responsibility involved and the degree of urgency required. Our hourly rates may be subject to periodic adjustments and we will inform you of any changes and the dates when they will take effect.
- Alternatively, we may agree with you a different fee arrangement, such as a blended rate, an approved budget or a mix of pro laborem fees and success In certain matters we may also accept to cap our fees. Any such arrangements should be agreed with you in writing on a case-by-case basis and may be subject to certain accepted assumptions.
- Our fee arrangements shall be the ones sent together with these standard terms of business or those contained in any fee proposal, fee quote or engagement letter sent to you in respect of any specific matter.
- In certain cases, we may ask you to pay a retainer for fees or expenses in advance of the provision of our services, which shall be credited to a separate Client’s Account.
3. Expenses and VAT
- Our fees are exclusive of expenses incurred on your behalf, general office expenses and VAT, if
- Unless otherwise agreed, general office expenses, such as printing, photocopying, telecommunications, meeting expenses, regular mail, internal messenger services and other general office expenses, shall correspond to 5% of our fees and shall be charged separately in each relevant invoice.
- Expenses and disbursements incurred on your behalf, such as courier charges, travelling expenses, searches, registration and court fees, will also be charged to you. We will not incur in any substantial disbursements without your prior
4. Invoicing and Payment
- Unless otherwise agreed, invoices for the services provided to you will be issued on a monthly basis and shall be payable within 30 days of their receipt. Invoices in respect of expenses and disbursements incurred on your behalf may be issued immediately and should also be settled upon their reception.
- If our fees and disbursements are not paid when due, we reserve the right to decline to act any further on the matter in question and on any other matters in respect of which you have instructed us.
5. Confidentiality
- All information regarding our Clients is confidential unless we are instructed otherwise or we are required by law or applicable regulations to disclose it.
- Unless you expressly indicate otherwise, you agree that we may make general references to our representation to you in marketing and related materials. You agree that we may also disclose to third parties that we are acting or have acted for you on a matter if information about that matter is in the public domain or if you specifically consent to such disclosure. This may include providing information to legal directories, who may wish to contact you for your opinion on our services and, in the absence of objections, we assume this is acceptable to you.
6. Intellectual Property
- We own the intellectual property in any work we create and this intellectual property will not be transferred to you although you have our non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use our work for the purposes for which it was created.
7. Conflicts of Interest
- We are very keen on making sure that we do not engage in representation of other Clients in matters that directly conflict with matters in which we represent your interests. For this purpose, before accepting your instructions we will carry out an internal conflict search to ensure that, to the best of our knowledge, we have no conflict of interest which would affect our acting for you in a particular matter.
- Notwithstanding the above, we shall not be prevented from acting for other Clients whose interests are adverse to yours in matters not substantially related to those for which you have engaged us.
- In some situations we may be asked to represent other Clients in matters where you may have an indirect opposing In such cases, we agree that we will not act adversely to you in any situation where, as the result of our representation of you, we have obtained confidential information which, if known to any such other Client, could be used to your disadvantage, unless we screen our lawyers and legal executives who have such information from any involvement in the adverse representation.
- For purposes of this engagement, our Client is only you, and not your Accordingly, for conflict of interest purposes, we may represent another Client with interests adverse to your affiliates without obtaining your or their consent.
- Notwithstanding the above, on an exceptional basis, we are open to discuss our conflict policy with you if, for reasons of your own corporate policy, you require that we withhold from representing certain other entities.
8. Data Protection
- Any personal data provided will be processed by us and, shared as needed with service providers, as further explained at https://abreuadvogados.com/en/recursos/privacy-policy/, for the purposes of responding to enquiries, clarifying requests or complaints, providing legal services, complying with legal obligations, sending commercial communications related to us and invoicing and administrative management.
- As our Client, you have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, to restrict such processing, to access, rectify and erase your personal data, to data portability and to opt-out from receiving our commercial communications, by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
9. KYC and Reporting Obligations
- We are under the legal obligation to verify your identity and certain other data, as well as that of your beneficial owner(s) if any, prior to providing services to you
- Under applicable legislation we may be legally required to (i) report to the relevant authorities any knowledge or suspicion of a criminal activity, in certain cases without reference to you and without your consent, or (ii) report to the Portuguese Tax Authorities certain tax arrangements, within the meaning and for the purposes of complying with EU Directives (including DAC 6) as transposed into Portuguese
10. Compliance Programme
- Abreu Advogados has implemented a compliance programme to prevent, among other offences, money laundering, terrorist financing, acts of corruption and related infractions, available at https://abreuadvogados.com/recursos/plano-de-compliance-e-prevencao-de-riscos/.
- Abreu Advogados and its Clients undertake to comply with all legal and regulatory rules on the prevention of corruption and related offences, money laundering and terrorist financing.
11. Quality Assurance & Liability
- We are a limited liability law firm and your contractual relationship is with us and not with our members, partners, employees or consultants.
- As an ISO 9001:2015 certified firm, we submit any complaints received from Clients to a certified procedure, which is then audited by our quality compliance officers. Thus, if you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, please do contact our Quality Management Department at [email protected].
- We have in place professional indemnity insurance with a qualified insurer in accordance with the Portuguese Bar A copy of our insurance policy is available upon request by e-mail to [email protected].
12. Law and Forum
- These Standard Terms of Business and any fee arrangements entered into together with or pursuant to these Standard Terms of Business shall be governed by Portuguese Law and you agree to submit any disputes or matters related to the provision of our services to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Portuguese Courts.