INTERNATIONAL FIRMS Q&A
work with Arnold & Porter and Reed Smith. We work with both European and U.S. law firms.
What is your preference regarding fee structures – fixed or hourly? We have both, fixed and hourly rates. Depending on whether you go for M&A, or international litigation, they can be very different. We will have to analyse the actual situation, there is no pre-defined preference for one or another. We have also seen firms offering us fee structures based on the “added value,” but this may be very subjective and it may cause disputes in the
future.The perception of “added value” of the company and the law firm may be different, and this may harm their relationship. We prefer to have partnerships with law firms that we simply exchange scale of work for better fees, so it is a two-way deal. Of course, quality of the work is an essential condition and we will only develop such relationship with very good law firms.
Looking to the future for a moment, obviously China will fuel demand for some time to come. Besides China, is iron ore demand coming primarily from emerging markets? We have clients in traditional and emerging markets. The demand of iron ore from China has grown a lot, and it is still growing. China is also a pro- ducer of iron ore, but it does nothave enough reserves to satisfy all its de- mand.
Clovis Torres General Counsel
Vale S.A. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“ 10 ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | LATIN AMERICA 2013
The upshot of all these conflicting regulations is a lack of stability that prejudices potential investors. It turns away people who might otherwise want to invest
We sell less than 15 percent of our production of iron ore in Brazil, and
the rest is exported. We produce much more than theBrazil domestic de- mand. We export iron ore and iron ore pellets basically to Europe and Asia. In 2012, Asia accounted for 66.2%(49% China) and Europe accounted for 17.1%.
About the author Clovis Torres, a Brazilian national, is the General Counsel of Vale S.A., the largest producer of iron ore and the second largest mining company in the world. Before joining Vale, Clovis worked in-house for companies in Brazil such as Odebrecht and Cargill, and the IFC-International Finance Corporation, in Washington DC, and was a partner of Brazilian law firm, Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice. Clovis travelled extensively throughout the world for different projects. He holds a law degree from Federal University of Bahia, a LLM from Tulane Law School and a MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
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