Restructuring and Insolvency

Barbieri Advogados acts in judicial reorganisation and bankruptcy through a practice focused on the protection of business credit. The practice operates at a historic moment in the Brazilian insolvency regime: the 2020 reform (Lei nº 14.112/2020) structurally reshaped the Lei nº 11.101/2005 (Brazilian Bankruptcy and Reorganisation Act), with changes in procedural deadlines, the rural reorganisation regime, tax treatment and related instruments, redefining well-established premises of planning and litigation in restructuring and bankruptcy proceedings.

The practice is structured around three main pillars. In viability assessment, the firm provides advisory services to companies in financial distress, with technical evaluation of the available alternatives, analysis of the economic and legal viability of the restructuring plan, and assessment of risks to directors and shareholders. In claim filing and defence, the firm acts on the creditor side in judicial reorganisation and bankruptcy proceedings, filing claims, contesting third-party claims, defending guarantees, acting at general creditors’ meetings, and challenging plans where the creditor’s interests so require. In bankruptcy proceedings, the firm defends creditors in claim filing, in actions for the enforcement of guarantees, in asset preservation measures, and in related procedural incidents — piercing of the corporate veil, director liability, and extension actions. The firm also acts, on occasion, in recuperação extrajudicial (out-of-court reorganisation).

The practice works in close coordination with Banking and Finance on credit operations involving companies in distress and on related out-of-court enforcement, with Tax on tax issues specific to restructuring — special instalment programmes, tax clearance certificates, tax settlement — and with Corporate on corporate reorganisations that may arise from the restructuring process.