Never sign a Portuguese document you haven't understood.

Much of what goes wrong for foreigners in Brazil goes wrong at signature. The long-term rental with an inflation index clause nobody explained; the construction contract with no completion penalty; the "standard" broker agreement granting exclusivity for a year; the partnership agreement that's silent on exactly the scenario that later happens. None of these require litigation to fix if they're caught before signing. All of them are expensive after.

Our contract practice runs both directions. Review: you send the document you've been asked to sign; you get back an English explanation of what it actually does, the clauses that hurt you, and the specific changes to request — usually within a few business days. Drafting: we paper your deals — rentals, services, construction, loans between friends (especially those), sales — with terms Brazilian courts enforce, in bilingual format where both sides need to truly understand it.

And the quiet workhorse of cross-border life: the power of attorney. Nearly everything we do for clients abroad — closings, probates, company acts, lawsuits — runs on a POA. Drafting them is real legal work: broad enough to be usable, narrow enough to be safe, in the form the specific notary or registry will accept, executed at a consulate or apostilled locally. We draft them precisely and tell you exactly how to execute them.