‘Portugal is very attractive to global law firms’ (with José Luís Moreira da Silva)

«The Portuguese Law Firms Association [ASAP in Portuguese], led by José Luís Moreira da Silva, which represents and promotes the interests of law firms in the country, brought together three hundred decision-making lawyers from the largest law firms at its 149th national meeting, held at the Belém Cultural Centre in Lisbon on 24 October. The all-day event aimed to reflect on the future of the national legal profession and addressed topics such as the strategic vision of six managing partners, new corporate projects in the first person, the impact of artificial intelligence on the practice of the profession, and opportunities for young lawyers.

[...]

‘It is truly a privilege to have both the president of CPAS and the president of the Bar Association here with us today.’ These words were spoken by José Luís Moreira da Silva, president of ASAP and host of the event, in his opening speech before an audience of almost three hundred lawyers. "As you may recall, a year ago, I made a statement that became controversial on social media, but in which I stated the obvious and what we all felt at the time. Namely: the OA had turned its back on law firms and did not represent us.‘ José Luís Moreira da Silva, also a partner at SRS Legal at the time, accused the institution of behaving like a ’trade union" rather than a true public association of all lawyers. In his opening speech, José Luís Moreira da Silva also argued, ‘quite frankly, we law firms increasingly feel that we are not represented in our Bar Association, which seems to no longer want to represent all lawyers.»