Foreign companies operating in Brazil typically start with external counsel and add in-house lawyers later than they should. The trigger is usually volume: labour and tax matters here generate a workload that external firms bill for and that an internal team handles more cheaply and earlier.
Bar registration is a condition of practice
Practising law in Brazil requires active registration with the OAB, the Brazilian bar. Registration is at state section level, with its own rules for acting outside the state of original registration — relevant when the role is in a different city or the operation is national.
Status changes over time and is verifiable in a public register, so this belongs at screening rather than at admission. A foreign law degree does not permit practice here without going through a recognition process.
Labour and tax dominate the workload
Brazil has a dedicated labour court system, and employment claims are a normal background condition of operating rather than a sign of mismanagement. An in-house team that can manage exposure actively — documentation discipline, early settlement judgement — pays for itself.
Tax is the scarcest specialisation for the same reason it is scarce in finance: the system is detailed enough that competence takes years and does not transfer from another jurisdiction. Budget accordingly, and do not expect a generalist to absorb it.
What to assess for an in-house role
In a law firm, a lawyer is assessed on technique and client service. In-house, they are assessed on enabling the business within acceptable risk — with a single client who disagrees with them regularly.
The most revealing question is therefore not technical: describe a time you told the business no, and how it ended. Someone who never has is probably not protecting the company; someone who only says no stops being consulted, and legal starts being routed around — which is the worst outcome available.
A second one: which risk did you accept, and why? A mature in-house lawyer knows zero risk is not a product on offer, and can explain the criterion they used.
For a subsidiary, add a third dimension: whether the person can explain Brazilian legal constraints to a parent that will find them unfamiliar, without either overstating the risk to be safe or minimising it to be agreeable. Follow-up continues for 90 days.
