About Teresa Morais Leitão

Teresa Morais Leitão has practiced as a transactional lawyer in Portugal for over twenty-five years. In the last decade, she has invested in the advancement of alternative dispute resolution, participating in arbitrations and mediations in Portugal and Brazil.

She is the founder of PRO BONO, the first clearinghouse in Portugal that connects lawyers, NGOs and law students, to guarantee access to justice to underserved and minority communities in Portugal.

Litigation Practice

Ms. Morais Leitão has experience in corporate law, including: international arbitration, M&A, real estate and tourism, energy, and natural resources law. She served as a lawyer and mediator at More Than Lawyers, with special focus on general company law from 2012-2017 and as a partner at Morais Leitão J. Galvão Teles & Associados from 1998-2012. As an associate at the latter firm, she was responsible for the development of the environmental law department from 1992-1997.

She has international experience working in New York as a foreign associate at Cleary, Gottleib, Steen & Hamilton as part of the International Legal Exchange Program sponsored by the American Bar Association.

Mediation Practice

Ms. Morais Leitão has served as a mediator in commercial, family, distributorship, property and inheritance cases, among others, including matters listed below:

• Mediation involving a business interruption case and clientele indemnification in a distributorship relationship in the luxury sport apparel industry (conducted in French, English and Portuguese)
• Assisted in a Mediation with the Portuguese Stock Exchange Commission
• Mediated settlement of a business interruption case and clientele indemnification in a distributorship relationship in the F&B industry (conducted in Spanish and Portuguese)
• Mediated €15 million distributorship case between distribution company and a public U.S. group of luxury products (conducted in Portuguese and English)
• Mediated case involving environmental liability for underground waste spillages between three large multinational energy companies and local government authorities (conducted in Spanish and Portuguese)
• Mediated dispute between real estate fund, condominium association and owner representatives over disrespect of condominium rights of 45 dwellings
• Mediated dispute involving family inheritance with eleven parties
• Mediated settlement of construction project involving the shared underground between three large multinational energy groups (conducted in Portuguese and English)
• Mediated out-sourcing of different units within a petrochemical complex, namely the laboratory, liaising between the parties, counsels, and the workers representatives (conducted in Portuguese and English)