IEL Elite

Overview

The labour and employment team at Mattos Filho is spread across offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Campinas. D&I is central to the practice, which is 57% female and comprises a number of Black, LGBTQ+, and disabled members.

The group is a reliable partner for multinationals seeking to navigate the nuances of local labour legislation, and it is able to act on multi-jurisdictional projects through its network of close ties with leading international or foreign labour teams – including in Spain, the USA, and the UK.

Brasília-based Rafael Caetano in April 2022 was promoted to partner. Sólon Cunha and Domingos Fortunato in São Paulo are additional names of note within the department.

Specialisms

The team is a go-to for clients seeking assistance with a wide variety of business-critical issues, from the advisory through to the contentious. Notably, the group is well-versed in mitigating potentially damaging reputational issues, and in defending against actions filed by the public prosecutor.

A major area of activity of late has been employment classification. For example, partners Cleber Venditti, Rafael de Filippis, and Caetano have supported multinational insurance giant Prudential in a dispute relating to the legal relationship between the company and its franchisees. This has included successful representation at the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho – the country’s highest appellate court for labour law issues.

Clients regularly entrust the group to handle issues that impact large workforces, and notably those involving labour unions. This was showcased in advice from Campinas-based partner Vilma Kutomi to Honda on its layoff of 500 employees, including the implementation of a voluntary termination plan.

Another standout example of the department’s work in this space to YDUQS, the country’s second-largest education group, which instructed the team to represent two universities in claims filed by the Sinpro-PI union. The union claimed wage indexation for the universities’ approximately 500 employees. A team led by Filippis resolved the dispute via mediation, resulting in a positive outcome for both parties.

The department also frequently assists with social responsibility matters. Recently, this was reflected in its advice to Brasil Foundation on the development of a relief project that would enable the maintenance of a school in the Amazon rainforest. The team acted for the school on restructuring its labour and employment debt, and on a strategy to negotiate a cooperation agreement with the Labour Prosecution Office.

Other areas of expertise include health and safety, workplace investigations, M&A, and executive compensation.

Clients