Loyalty, friendship and roots in academic life

Sacha Calmon – Misabel Derzi Consultores e Advogados represents, above all, a history of friendship and loyalty.

Even after becoming regarded as an authority in Brazil in Tax Law and acquiring an enviable business structure, the office has preserved its roots, which are firmly planted in the corridors of the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), in Belo Horizonte.

The first pages of this history take us back to 1994, when professors Sacha Calmon and Misabel Derzi, teaching colleagues in the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), got together to set up an office for issuing opinions in the tax field.

The intellectual affinity between them was evident, seeing that, at that moment, they were the only representatives from Minas Gerais in the various congresses on tax law that were then being held throughout Brazil. The intention of both at the start was to conciliate academic activities with the full exercise of their accumulated knowledge in the area of Tax Law.

The first steps of SCMD were taken in the drawing room of Professor Misabel Derzi’s home. The quality of the work and the good results provided an impetus for the growth of the office, which placed Minas Gerais on the Brazilian tax law map, and which soon became one of the most solid and reputable in the country.

Time Line

Before entering the teaching profession, Sacha Calmon had gained experience as an attorney in the public sphere, when he was attorney general of the Fiscal Attorney General’s Office of Minas Gerais, and in the private sector, with a distinguished period at the Internal Juridical department of Acesita (now Arcelormittal Inox Brasil). For her part, Misabel Derzi had wide academic experience and her opinions gained national proportions, being cited in judgments of the Federal Supreme Court.

Along with the opinions, important cases in administrative and judicial litigation were starting to be demanded of the office.

Still in the origins of SCMD, Eduardo Maneira, who had been a student of, and tutored for his Master’s Degree by, professor Sacha Calmon, was invited to enter company and to develop this emerging litigation. This he did for some time, later transferring to Rio de Janeiro to consolidate the position of the office in that city, more than successfully, his efforts constituting active participation in the spread of the representation of the office throughout Brazil.

In 1995, Igor Mauler Santiago started on his journey in SCMD, and quickly became a partner. A professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, he transferred to São Paulo when the office in that city was being set up, where his efforts resulted in still more consolidation.

Subsequently, Paula de Abreu Machado Derzi Botelho and Juliana Junqueira Coelho were invited into the company as partners. Both brought extensive professional experiences from outside that boosted the project considerably, the first in the private sector, in another law office, and the second in the public sector.

Moving on to 2001, the partner André Mendes Moreira entered the firm, and became a partner two years later, participating actively in the whole process of transformation through which the office has passed in the last ten years.

In November 2003, to reinforce its activities in the field of direct taxes, SCMD admitted Eduardo Junqueira Coelho as a partner. Coming from a public career and with a multidisciplinary background, he is today one of those responsible for the consultancy sector. In 2005, the attorney at law Valter Lobato, with extensive experience in the practice of business law, was invited to become part of the company.

The office has thus augmented its list of partners with figures from a new generation who will, in all certainty, remain faithful to the original project, based as it is on ethics, quality and incessant work in the unswerving defense of the cases that it takes on.

Expansion

The growth of SCMD is due to the permanent critical examination of its internal processes and the development of the market. This continual perfecting is one of the office’s noteworthy characteristics.

The setting up of units in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro occurred because of the office’s need to strengthen relationships with customers in these cities.

The Brasília office has the function of serving local customers, guaranteeing personalized monitoring of the processes, in the final administrative and judicial instances.

Union

SCMD has created its own culture, a series of values. The proof of this is that it has never had splits between the personnel, or excessive turnover. The office has not generated scars, only friends.

The team’s union preserves itself naturally through the way people have of dealing with each other. An environment of friendship has been established, where everyone acts towards a common objective.

SCMD is still young, and it has a peculiar origin. Loyalty as the principal link between the partners walks side by side with a professional structure which can serve the most demanding customers in the market.