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The Brazilian Federal Lawyers’ Bar (Conselho Federal da Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil) has approved on June 14 a draft bill for a new Code of Ethics for lawyers, applicable to both outside counsel and in‑house lawyers. It includes provisions regarding adequate dispute resolution mechanisms. Now the lawyers will be under an ethical obligation to promote ADR whenever it appears as an adequate solution for the dispute. Attorney-client privilege will apply not only to communications exchanged in connection with court cases, but also to settlement negotiations, mediations and arbitrations. Last but not least, the clients will not be able to impose lower attorney’s fees due to the fact that the case went to mediation or other negotiation method instead of being judged by a court. The author is contributing with the drafting procedure. The final wording of the Code is yet to be enacted.

Author

Joaquim de Paiva Muniz is a partner and head of the arbitration team in Trench Rossi Watanabe. Joaquim has an LL.M. from the University of Chicago and is the chair of the Arbitration Commission of the Rio de Janeiro Bar (OAB/RJ) and coordinator of arbitration courses of the Rio de Janeiro Bar, including a lato sensu graduate course. Joaquim is an officer of the Brazilian Arbitration and Mediation Center, which is the largest of its kind in Rio de Janeiro, as well as an author of many books, including the Arbitration Law of Brazil: Practice and Procedure (Juris Publishing, 2nd Edition 2015) and Curso Básico de Direito Arbitral (Juruá, 4rd Edition 2017). Joaquim can be reached at joaquim.muniz@trenchrossi.com.