Leonardo Duarte focuses his practice in the areas of competition and regulatory law. He provides legal advice and risk assessment on competition and regulatory matters related to contracts (distribution agreements, supply agreements, joint venture agreements, among others), general business practices, mergers and other types of economic concentration. He regularly represents Brazilian and foreign clients before the competition and regulatory authorities on merger notifications, challenges to merger notifications, investigations of/into anticompetitive practices (cartels, abuse of dominance, among others) and regulatory violations in general.

Mr. Duarte has broad experience handling complex merger control cases, including multijurisdictional merger notifications. He also advises on anticompetitive investigations, including cases involving abuses of dominance, national and international cartels, dawn-raids, leniency agreements and negotiations of settlements. Mr. Duarte represents clients in litigation cases involving competition and regulatory matters before the federal courts in Brasília.

Clients value Mr. Duarte’s international knowledge and experience, enabling him to provide foreign and Brazilian companies with consistent, high quality and efficient legal services related to Competition Law and Regulatory Law issues. He represents companies in several industries such as Energy, Telecommunications, Pharmaceutics, Transport, Higher Education Services, Electronics, among others, based on the United States, Europe and Asian countries.

From August 2008 through September 2009, Mr. Duarte was a visiting associate at the European, Competition and Regulatory Law Department of a leading European law firm based in Lisbon, Portugal. During this period, he provided legal advice and represented clients before the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. He worked on several cases involving merger notifications, state aid notifications, agreements between competitors, abuses of dominant position, and other anticompetitive practices.

Bar Admissions
Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-DF)
Bar Association in Portugal

Education
Specialization degree in Competition Law and Regulatory Law (2008/2009)
University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

LL.M degree in Comparative Law, with concentration in Antitrust Law and Merger and Acquisitions
University of Miami - School of Law, Coral Gables-FL, United States (2003/2009)

Bachelor degree in Law (LL.B) (1997/2001)
Municipal Law School of Franca, Franca-Sao Paulo, Brazil

Professional Associations

• American Bar Association
• International Bar Association
  

Chambers of Commerce and Associations

- American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham-DF);
- American Bar Association - ABA, Section of Antitrust Law;
- International Bar Association - IBA, Antitrust Committee.