BERNARDI & BERNARDI
Permitting · Strategic Litigation · ESG and Carbon Credits · Regulatory and Institutional Advisory
Specialisation, Experience
and Technical Excellence
The firm Bernardi & Bernardi Advogados Associados is among the first legal structures in the country dedicated exclusively to environmental legal management, having followed — and in many cases influenced — the very consolidation of Environmental Law in the national legal system.
Our practice is distinguished by integrated, multilateral work across law, regulation, technical opinions and the operational reality of projects, particularly in complex settings involving licensing, enforcement, conditions and environmental liabilities, with direct and qualified dialogue with regulatory and enforcement authorities.
We are structured to serve ventures subject to intense regulatory control, in partnership with multidisciplinary technical teams, qualified and sized to the strict needs of each case.
“What sets us apart is the combination of private practice in highly complex projects with service inside the environmental administration — which affords a strategic reading of how the State actually decides.” Zilto Bernardi — Founding partner
Why the firm reads matters differently
Five attributes the firm holds simultaneously and which, combined, produce an uncommon strategic reading in Brazilian environmental practice.
Exclusive specialisation
Environmental Law is not one vertical among others: it is the firm's sole reason to exist since inception, which grants technical depth uncommon in the Brazilian legal market.
Strategic triangulation
Harmonised management between project, environmental agency and technical consultants, conducting the administrative process with speed, integrity and objectivity.
Public and private experience
Careers that combine leadership within environmental agencies and public administration with advisory work for major developments. The firm’s lawyers know the decision-making process from both sides of the counter — which anticipates requirements, shortens paths and sharpens institutional dialogue.
Multidisciplinary team
Integration of lawyers, geologists, oceanographers and environmental engineers, to absorb the technical dimension of licensing and liabilities with real depth, aiming at speed and cost-efficiency.
High-complexity litigation
It is in critical moments that the firm reveals its greatest strength. We have a team of notably qualified and specialised lawyers, with extensive public and private experience in the country’s most significant environmental episodes. This combination amplifies all four preceding attributes.
Environmental specialisation joined to a century-old firm
Century-old solidity, nationwide reach and multidisciplinary excellence added to leading environmental specialisation.
Bernardi & Bernardi
Advogados Associados
Environmental Law as the firm's sole reason to exist: permitting, litigation, ESG and regulatory advisory led by a team with both public and private experience.
Villemor Amaral
Advogados
One of the oldest law firms in continuous activity in Brazil: over 400 professionals, established practice in more than 22 areas of law and nationwide reach.
Bernardi & Bernardi is responsible for the environmental and regulatory practice of Villemor Amaral Advogados, founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1909, whose longevity is in itself evidence of institutional solidity and of continuity in technical standards.
The alliance produces an uncommon equation: the depth of a firm dedicated exclusively to Environmental Law, combined with a correspondent network reaching all Brazilian states and first-rate support in more than 22 areas of law — from corporate to tax, from labour to arbitration and infrastructure.
“Consistent results for generations.”
Integrated environmental legal advice
Environmental Permitting and Regulation
Legal management of highly complex permitting processes, focused on speed and on synergy between developer, environmental agency and technical consultants.
Environmental Litigation and Crisis Management
Legal defence and strategic conduct of highly complex matters in the administrative, judicial and institutional spheres, at every level.
Carbon, ESG and Energy Transition
Legal structuring of decarbonisation projects and new energy sources — onshore and offshore wind, solar, low-carbon hydrogen, biofuels and natural gas as transition energy — from regulatory design to the negotiation of the instruments.
Strategic and Institutional Advisory
Strategic conduct of complex environmental matters, integrating legal analysis, multidisciplinary technical support and qualified institutional engagement.
“Where regulation is most intense, legal advice must run deepest.”
Concentrated sector focus
Six sectors under high environmental scrutiny, in which the firm holds demonstrable credentials, a team with executive experience and a record of landmark matters.
Founding partner and associate lawyers
Five senior professionals with leadership careers in listed companies, environmental agencies, port authorities and rule-making bodies, brought in according to the needs of each matter.
Zilto Bernardi Freitas
Nearly three decades devoted to Environmental Law from both sides of the table: heading a federal environmental agency, running municipal environmental policy and advising major energy and infrastructure projects.
Regulatory reading, first hand
The three mistakes that delay an environmental licence
An impact study treated as paperwork, unworkable licence conditions and abandoned institutional dialogue: the mistakes that turn months into years.
Infraction notice: the first 48 hours
Preserving evidence, caution with statements signed during an inspection and mapping deadlines decide the outcome before the defence is written.
Licence conditions: the silent liability
A valid licence creates a sense of compliance while conditions pile up. The bill arrives at renewal and in due diligence.
Consent decrees: when to sign and when to resist
A consent decree is directly enforceable: every obligation agreed becomes immediately demandable. Three questions guide the decision.
“Defending a project and protecting the environment are not opposing interests: they are the same process, properly conducted.”
Contact the firm
B&B Regulatory Alert
The firm's analysis of new rules, decisions and movements by environmental agencies. Informative content, with no commercial frequency.
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