José Geraldo Garcia de Souza and Ulysses Grant Keener, Jr. founded GARCIA & KEENER ADVOGADOS in May 1959. Since its founding, the firm has developed a comprehensive experience in all of its areas of specialization while offering consistent personalized attention to its corporate and private clients.
Garcia & Keener has traditionally represented its long-term and loyal corporate and private clients on a multi-disciplinary basis, particularly within the areas of international and domestic business transactions, taxation and commercial litigation. Non-exclusively and significantly, Garcia & Keener assists its clients in the formation and organization of medium and large-sized companies, mergers, splits, amalgamations, consortia, joint ventures, the purchase and sale of stocks and shares and company assets. The firm distinguishes itself in international law, preparing contracts between Brazilian and foreign companies and representing foreign companies before the principal government agencies, including the Central Bank of Brazil and the National Bank for Economics & Social Development (BNDES).
The head office of Garcia & Keener in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the firm's branch offices in the cities of São Paulo, Manaus and Campinas, as well as its correspondent offices in all of the major Brazilian cities handle a wide array of legal matters countrywide, attending its clients not only in Portuguese but in the English, Spanish, French and Italian languages as well.
Our main practice areas are:
Taxation
Garcia & Keener is extremely active in the field of tax law, advising clients on tax matters and acting on their behalf in litigations, which are abundant due to the complexity of Brazil's prevailing tax system. It works constantly at the administrative levels of Municipalities, States and the Federal Government, as well as in State and Federal Law Courts, with considerable success. It has also shown its ability to produce new but sound theories, widely accepted in the Courts, resulting in tax saving for the clients.
Administrative Law
Accompanying the new routes taken by the government and its influence on Administrative Law, Garcia & Keener participated in privatization processes and has been assisting clients in matters relating to the new regulations governing public bidding and auctions in general.
Commercial and Corporate Law
As in the commercial area our clients are largely corporate, naturally it has built up great experience in assisting them in the various stages of life or circumstances of commercial and industrial companies, such as organization, dissolution and conversion (through mergers, amalgamations or splits)
Another distinction of Garcia & Keener in the corporate field is that it pioneered, in Brazil, in the organization and operation of franchises and has expertise in handling foreign trade matters (registration in DECEX, temporary admissions, customs valuations, dumping etc.).
Whatever the business, unfortunately no company is totally safe from occasional setbacks that sometimes have to be faced, e.g. those relating to contracts in general, recovery of credits, corporate and contractual disputes. For tackling with these issues, besides the traditional dispute resolution techniques, Garcia & Keener is also experienced with arbitration and mediation proceedings, having represented clients' interests before such important court as the ICC, the International Court of Arbitration.
Civil Law
An area of great importance, because it involves countless lawsuits and issues, Garcia & Keener has always excelled in handling civil disputes. It works particularly with lawsuits involving civil contractual and extra-contractual liability, contracts and obligations, ownership and possession rights, public registries, in addition to specific Family Law and probate cases.
The expansion of the services sector of the economy has meant that more professional companies are being opened, requiring amendments to their articles of association and their registration in the appropriate official bodies.
Garcia & Keener also has expertise in preparing and analyzing civil contracts in general.
Intellectual Property
For many years Garcia & Keener has been acquiring key experience in several intellectual property segments, working constantly in litigation resulting from copyright, artistic and connected rights, trademarks, and antitrust cases.
Our law firm works intensively in the preparation of publishing contracts, agreements for assigning artistic and similar rights, joint ventures in the area of recording products and in opening and organizing artistic performance companies. It also prepares contracts for transferring technology and trademark licensing, acting with the INPI - National Institute of Industrial Property.
Labor and Social Security
The importance of labor and social security disputes in Brazil has resulted in Garcia & Keener becoming actively involved in that area, at both the administrative and judicial levels. It represents, particularly, the interests of large corporations in individual and collective labor claims, employment-related accidents, presenting administrative and judicial defenses in the collection of social security debts and fines imposed by Regional Labor Offices.
In this sphere, Garcia & Keener's philosophy of avoiding lawsuits whenever possible, gives preference to counseling, resulting in considerable financial benefits for clients.
Foreign Investments
Since its foundation, Garcia & Keener has focused on giving advice to business ventures based overseas, offering full assistance, including registering and regularizing incoming loans and foreign capital in the Central Bank of Brazil.
Many years of uninterrupted activity have given us great experience in that area, in spite of successive legal alterations affecting the system of foreign investment in Brazil.
Energy, Oil and Gas
Before terms such as pre-salt have become commonplace, Garcia & Keener already had much experience in contacts with Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company, representing a number of its vendors.
The recent boom in the oil sector in Brazil has given our law firm the opportunity to prove that expertise counts.
Consumer Law
Since the enactment of the Consumer Protection Code of Brazil in the 90's, this branch of Law has attracted the attention of Garcia & Keener for its strongly innovative nature. Our law firm began large-scale activities, involving both preventive action and negotiating agreements, which is the essence of the system. It is constantly present in courtrooms all over the country, wherever consumer claims may be filed, as well as in other bodies of the Judiciary where such discussions may be commenced by Federal or State Prosecutors.
Environment
Protecting the environment and environmental law are current topics and are of growing importance to companies, either in preventing disputes or in administrative or judicial litigation, due to the triple civil, penal and administrative responsibility brought in by the 1988 Federal Constitution. Garcia & Keener is qualified to advise companies in administrative and judicial defenses, consultancy, legal opinions, public hearings, examining ventures and environmental studies and reports (EIA/RIMA), forming a multidisciplinary team, when necessary.
Free Competition and Economic Defense
A law firm like Garcia & Keener cannot dispense with contacts in this area, in which it has worked frequently, since the early days of the official regulating bodies.
International Network
Garcia & Keener has always been known for its connections with attorneys in other countries, mostly in the United States and Europe.
Correspondence with law firms based in countless cities of the United States is a routine, not only for taking care of interests of overseas clients but also for assisting our Brazilian clients willing to make businesses abroad.
Garcia & Keener is constantly giving advice on negotiating and preparing contracts between foreign companies and Brazilian companies, in addition to defining territorial conflicts of laws.