WHO WE ARE

Cavaleiro Machado & Associados is a limited liability partnership law firm, founded in 2010, the result of the friendship and joint legal practice of its partners and associates. The firm is dedicated to corporate law, especially the world of franchising and entrepreneurship in general and start-ups in particular, as well as supporting the same with internationalization. Based on the franchising experience of its founding partner, in order to find the best legal solutions for those who intend to develop their business under the franchise system, or through any other kind of entrepreneurship, the firm has acquired a cohesive and multidisciplinary team of lawyers that bring together diverse legal skills and strengths, enabling it to provide legal advice according to the particular needs of each client.

From supporting nascent start-ups, where we help entrepreneurs to evaluate their brands’ internationalization potential by defining the legal form in which it should operate in the market, the respective company structure and internal organization, together with considering the most advantageous tax régime, to franchise and or master franchise contract negotiations in Portugal or abroad. Whether for negotiating property contracts (in particular with shopping centres), employment contracts (including collective bargaining negotiations with unions), litigation in general (administrative, tax, employment and arbitration in particular), debt recovery, defence against actions from the ASAE (Food and Economic Safety Authority), ACT (Working Conditions Authority), AT (Tax and Customs Authority), SEF (Immigration and Border Control Department), Social Security, and other public bodies, to undertaking legal actions in relation to economic crimes, Cavaleiro Machado & Associados, attentive to the respective domestic or international legal system, strives to find the solutions that best serve its clients and their businesses.

Although focused on the business world, we have extended our area of practice to individuals — because companies are made up of people — so as to provide individual legal assistance, whenever requested, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 99 of the Bar Association Statute (EOA), which regulates matters pertaining to lawyers’ conflicts of interest.

In order to provide and ensure the best and most efficient legal advice and representation to its clients, Cavaleiro Machado & Associados has developed a system of close and preferential partnerships with other law firms and lawyers in individual practice domestically and internationally, which through its geographical location, experience and knowledge in specific areas of law, allows it to put at clients’ disposal a range of legal, centralized and coordinated resources for their specific case.

Cavaleiro Machado & Associados is a legal advisor to and member of the Portuguese Franchise Association.