International Trade v. Intellectual Property Lawyers:Globalization and the Brazilian Legal Profession

In the context of globalization, this work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers, who played important roles in opening the Brazilian economy and who were key players in cross-border transactions, are now losing ground to their peers with respect to expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is problematic. Generally, Brazilian legal education has become degraded and provincial.

Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to the United States, international trade lawyers are exposed to an education and a set of best practices that stress not just domestic law from one or another country, but laws from different jurisdictions. International trade lawyers in Brazil are now “global lawyers,” which enables them to deal more effectively with their country’s expanding economy, and it supports the argument that globalization matters for both today’s law students and the legal profession.