"Entrepreneurship in the legal profession" (with Giorgio Galli and Solange Fernandes)

Startup Lab by SRS Legal is also a startup acceleration programme aimed at developing products and solutions, essentially focused on technology-based startups. "If we look at SRS Legal's 'ecosystem', the programme has helped to bring ideas and people with extremely different and interesting profiles into the house. It has helped open our eyes to new market niches. Overall, we are proud to believe and try to demonstrate that law firms themselves can bring innovation to the ecosystem, and we believe that this is the Startup Lab's most significant legacy," say Giorgio Galli and Solange Fernandes, associates in SRS Legal's Corporate & Finance Department.

Regarding the way these startups have contributed to transforming your business models, the experts are unanimous: "The Programme allows for an interesting contamination between our office's operating model, which is based on division between departments and the search for constant specialisation, and the more flexible way in which startups approach their path. The concept of "pivoting", which is deeply rooted in startups. That is, the ability these companies have to adapt to market demands, teaches us a lot about the importance of adapting, and giving up on projects that sometimes simply don't work."

With regard to expectations for the future, Giorgio Galli and Solange Fernandes would like the programme to gain autonomy, growing in its ability to take on early stage projects, but also more mature projects. "We believe that the recent partnership with UNION Venture Builders will allow us to evolve in this direction. From entrepreneurship, we hope that it will be able to propose solutions capable not only of generating profits but also of solving increasingly pressing challenges, for example in the area of cyber security and environmental conservation."

Entrepreneurship, especially when accompanied by an enlightened vision, has a unique ability to solve problems quickly and effectively. "When the state and the private sector manage to work together then the results can be surprising," they explain. "We certainly have a vision that suffers from professional deformation, but we would like Portuguese companies to value their intellectual property more, investing in registering it. And that they had more capacity to invest in innovation and the creation of out-of-the-box solutions, exactly as start-ups are trying to do. In any case, the Portuguese economic system has shown resilience and the ability to create excellent products and services. We certainly need to strengthen the "Portugal" brand, but we're on the right track," emphasise Giorgio Galli and Solange Fernandes, associates in SRS Legal's Corporate & Finance Department.