When Simpson Thacher & Bartlett offered a job to Brazilian associate Thiago Spercel in 2008, Simpson partner S. Todd Crider engaged in some high-level diplomacy with Spercel’s firm. Spercel was hired out of Simpson’s foreign associate program, which gives young lawyers from abroad a taste of life in a New York firm–and an introduction to Simpson’s lawyers and clients–before returning home. As much as he hoped to hire Spercel, Crider also wanted to make sure that the move didn’t damage his firm’s relationship with Spercel’s Brazilian firm, Pinheiro Neto Advogados. One of Brazil’s most storied partnerships, the 340-lawyer firm has a history of representing foreign investors in Brazil–JP Morgan was client number 34, Bank of Boston was client number 57.
In a phone call to Pinheiro Neto’s chairman, Alexandre Bertoldi, Crider explained that Spercel had made the professional decision to transition from practicing Brazilian law to U.S. law–essentially an either/or proposition, since foreign lawyers are not allowed to practice local law in Brazil. Spercel had received an offer from another New York firm, and Simpson, which was already considering opening a São Paulo office, countered with one of its own. Crider assured Bertoldi that Spercel’s hiring was the exception rather than the new rule for Simpson’s foreign associate program. The interfirm diplomacy went beyond the phone call. When Bertoldi was later in New York for a lunch meeting, Simpson’s executive committee chairman, Philip “Pete” Ruegger III, stopped by to reaffirm the relationship between the firms. Bertoldi says that the way Simpson handled the situation was “very friendly and very elegant.” Indeed, his firm has placed another foreign associate at Simpson since the New York firm hired Spercel.
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