Author Profile

Júlio César Bueno

Júlio César Bueno has been a partner at Pinheiro Neto Advogados since 2001. He is based in São Paulo and has considerable national and international experience focusing on the practice of construction law and engineering contracts, project finance, EPCs and alliance deals, as well on arbitrations, mediations and dispute boards.

He represents some of the world’s largest organisations (owners, multilateral agencies, financial institutions, contractors and developers) in their global infrastructure and construction projects located throughout Brazil and the rest of Latin America as well as Africa. He assists clients across the entire project spectrum, commencing at project conception and continuing through punch list completion and beyond. Some recent examples include gas facilities, power plants (nuclear, coal-fired, gas-fired, combined cycle, hydro), wind farms, steel manufacturing facilities, copper mining facilities, coal mining facilities and ports.

He is a member of the Society of Construction Law (SCL) and the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF) and acts as officer of the International Bar Association’s International Construction Projects Committee (ICP) and the International Bar Association’s Latin American Regional Forum (LARF). He is also a member of the São Paulo Engineering Institute Arbitration and Mediation Chamber and the Brazilian Institute of Civil Procedure Law (IBDP).

He holds a law degree from the University of São Paulo Law School (LLB 1991); a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge Law School (LLM 1995); and a doctorate from the University of São Paulo Law School (PhD 2001). He has published several articles published on matters related to civil procedure law, infrastructure and construction law.

He is recommended in Who’s Who Legal (for construction, project finance, public procurement and defence product liability); Chambers Latin America (for construction and projects, dispute resolution and defence product liability); Practical Law Company (for construction and projects); and Análise Advocacia’s directory of Brazil’s ‘most admired’ lawyers (for construction and projects, dispute resolution, public procurement and defence product liability).

Posts by Júlio César Bueno

Who’s afraid of political risks?

In any cross-border financing, parties (banks specially) take a political risk in the sense that a collapse of the existing political order in the borrower’s country or the imposition of new taxes, exchange transfer restrictions, nationalisation or other laws may jeopardise the prospects of repayment and recovery. The term political risk is widely used in relation to Project Finance and can conveniently be defined to mean both the danger of political and financial instability within a given country and the danger that government action (or inaction) will have a negative impact either on the continued existence of the project or on the cash flow generating capacity of a project.read more »

The challenges of infrastructure and recent trends in project finance: some remarks on the Brazilian experience

The success in the financing of an infrastructure project, by means of Project Finance, depends on all the parties involved satisfactorily complying with their various contractual obligations under the Project Finance Documentation. Lenders, as well as the other participants, in accordance with the level of risk being assumed and in proportion to the benefits received from the implementation of the project, will undertake the due diligence needed to adequately measure the risks involved. The viability of the Project Finance model, in short, is based on the consistency and efficiency of its network of agreements. Such documents must be structured and negotiated in a consistent manner with the respective legislation applicable in the jurisdictions involved, and be constructed in such a way as to allow full implementation of their respective terms and conditions, notwithstanding the natural complexity of the same, in a form which will satisfactorily identify, mitigate, allocate and allow the adequate management of the various risks involved in the Project Finance.read more »

Brazil opens bid for a bullet train: a US$ 20 billion project

On July 13th 2010 Brazilian Federal Government launched bidding documents regarding the concession regime and procedures for implementation and operation of the High-Speed Rail (TAV – Trem de Alta Velocidade) that will connect the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas. The project specifies that the construction, operation, and maintenance will be granted to the consortium that provides the lowest fare for service. The final schedule calls for the railway to be completed by 2017, although the Brazilian Federal Government anticipates the line will be partially open before the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. TAV is worth US 20 billion.read more »

US$ 22 billion of upcoming expected investments in the Brazilian railway system

US$ 22 billion to be invested in these projects in the in the Brazilian railway systemread more »

PPP Projects in Brazil: 2) General concepts and comparative comparative view on PPP and Concession

Continuing our last discussion on PPPs in Brazil, we should note that PPP LAW applies to government entities (including mixed-capital companies) directly or indirectly controlled by the Federal Government, States, Federal District and Municipalities. Article 2 of PPP LAW defines PPP as follows: “Public-Private Partnership is an administrative concession contract that may assume the form [...] read more »

PPP Projects in Brazil: 1) Opportunities for the construction and engineering industries

Federal Law No. 11079, 2004 [PPP LAW] instituted the general rules for bidding and contracting of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) within the realm of public administration. This is an important volley in the Brazilian government efforts to develop funding and management alternatives for public works in furtherance of the bidding system instituted by the Federal Law [...] read more »

Brazilian Arbitration Law: an important tool for the Construction Law practice in Brazil

Trend for ADRs, specially Arbitration in Latin America
For the last decade or so, development of arbitration as an effective method for out-of-court resolution of disputes in Latin America has been intense, with new local legislations being adopted in several countries of the region. In many of these countries, consolidation of and credibility on arbitration have [...] read more »