VCA – Valadas Coriel & Associados turns 25 today. Founded in Lisbon in 2001 by João Valadas Coriel and António Cayolla, it was the 51st law firm registered with the Portuguese Bar Association.
Twenty-five years on, our work still starts from the same idea: the legal question is rarely the whole question. We bring together teams from across our practice around each client, with the closeness and care of a personal relationship.
Built around a philosophy
Law firms are often built around practice areas. VCA was built around a way of looking at clients: understanding the whole picture, not just the initial brief presented to us.
In 2001, the Portuguese legal market was largely inward-looking, with little connection to the outside world. From the start, VCA chose a different path.
25 years of evolving
Over these 25 years, we have grown, adapted and earned the trust of an increasingly diverse client base: individuals, families, family offices and companies, in Portugal and internationally. We stepped outside our comfort zone, went looking for new markets and built trusted relationships with colleagues in other countries.
Those relationships are what allow us to handle matters that span several jurisdictions today.
“In 2001, we had to learn everything and be ready for anything. We built our practice one matter at a time, always listening and always learning. Twenty-five years on, most of our clients come from outside Portugal, and that same curiosity is still what moves us forward.”
— João Valadas Coriel, Managing Partner
What stays the same
Clients have changed, the tools have changed, and so has the profession. What matters has not: the empathy, the clarity, the discretion and the long-term perspective.
More than technically flawless documents, the people who come to us need someone who understands what is really at stake. That is the work we intend to keep doing.
To the clients who trust us with what matters to them, to everyone who has been and is part of VCA, and to the partners who work alongside us in Portugal and abroad: Thank You.
We head into the next 25 years with the same curiosity we started with.
