Member Details
Jurisdictions
Portugal
Exclusive Member
Competition Law , EU Law
Biography
Rita Leandro Vasconcelos is a Partner at Cruz Vilaça Advogados, whose professional activity has focused on competition law and European Union law.
In her years of practice as a lawyer (16 of them in the Law Firm Cuatrecasas), she has advised on restrictive practices cases in sectors as diverse as banking, infrastructure, transportation, electronic communications, pharmaceutical, professional orders, among others. Her professional experience also includes the design and analysis of distribution systems, the analysis of pricing and discount systems, and the conduct of competition law compliance programs. Also noteworthy is advising on complex mergers (including multi-jurisdictional notifications) in sectors such as air transport, energy, financial markets, highways, communications and consumer goods, among others, and state aid advice.
She also has experience of competition law litigation before the national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
She holds a PhD (Portuguese Catholic University) and a Masters (University of Lisbon) in EU Competition Law and a Master of Arts in Economics for Competition Law (Kings College London).
She is currently a visiting lecturer at the Católica Porto Business School (Portuguese Catholic University) and was a lecturer at the School of Law of the University of Lisbon with which she collaborates very often in postgraduate and other courses.
Member of the team of Women@competitioniberia.
Currently she is Vice-President of the Portuguese Association for European Law (2018-2021) of which she was Secretary-General (2012-2018).
She was Secretary-General of Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen (2016-2018) and thus integrated the team that prepared the XXVIII FIDE Congress in Estoril in 2018.
She was also Secretary-General of the Portuguese Competition Lawyers’ Circle (2013-2014).
She is a lawyer recommended by leading directories, such as Chambers, and has been awarded the “40 in their 40s” award by W@competition.
Firm Description
Cruz Vilaça Advogados is a new law firm based in Lisbon, in the complex and multi-layered legal spectrum of Portugal and Europe.
However, it has a track record of about 40 years of experience in the academia, in the government, and in the Courts of the European Union, and of nearly 20 years of court practice. It is based on these credentials that we resolutely take up the challenge of difference and plurality of forms in the practice of law.
Our intention is not to do everything because we do not want to do it just anyway. We want to focus on what we are best at: namely European Union Law, Competition Law and the Protection of Fundamental Rights in Portugal and in Europe.
It is not our goal to set ourselves against anyone; we rather propose our collaboration to those who consider it an added value.
Combining experience, maturity, youth and modernity, we are used to deal with complex legal issues, major transactions and operations. For the provision of top-level legal advice, we consider it essential to be able to respond to the needs of our clients at all times and in any circumstances, and to respond effectively and swiftly to the challenges that typically come up when defending their rights and protecting their interests.
We do not compromise on what we consider to be our core values: excellence in the quality of services provided, promptness in meeting our clients’ needs, rigor in addressing legal issues, uncompromising ethics in conflict regulation, and deep awareness of our social responsibility.
We have also made a firm commitment to a modernizing Portugal; to a Europe that respects the rule of law and fundamental rights; to the freedom of markets and undistorted competition; to the protection of individual rights; and to the legal certainty of citizens.
