Family and Succession Law

Our firm offers dedicated legal advice in Family and Succession Law, with a balanced approach that prioritizes the well-being of all parties involved. Our team acts with empathy, efficiency and technical expertise, providing comprehensive guidance on emotional and patrimonial matters, from dispute prevention to judicial defence. We combine innovative, tailor-made solutions with a multidisciplinary perspective to achieve optimal outcomes.

Practice Areas – National Scope

Marriage and Matrimonial Property Regimes

Drafting and review of prenuptial agreements.
Preparation and adaptation of premarital contracts for property regimes.
Modifications/changes to matrimonial property regimes.
Matrimonial property regimes and prenuptial conventions.
Allocation of the family home.
Strategies for asset protection in marriage scenarios, including advance planning to prevent future disputes.
Early structuring of inheritances with impact on matrimonial property regimes.

Divorce and Separation

Amicable or contentious divorce, including resolution of pending proceedings.
Divorce by mutual consent or litigious divorce.
Equitable division of assets in separations or dissolution of de facto unions.
Advisory on patrimonial separations, including divisions in divorces or de facto unions.
Partition of community property.
Mutual-consent or litigious divorce proceedings.

De Facto Unions

Registration of de facto unions.
Recognition and dissolution of de facto unions.
Regularization of informal unions.
Equitable division of assets upon dissolution of de facto unions.

Parentage and Parental Responsibilities

Advisory, definition and adjustment of parental authority regulation, visitation regimes and child maintenance.
Proceedings to amend previous parental responsibility regulations.
Agreements on custody, visitation and child support for minors.
Amendments to prior decisions and enforcement of breached agreements.
Regulation of the exercise of parental responsibilities.
Investigations or challenges to parentage.
Proceedings for acknowledgment of paternity.
Actions to establish or contest paternity.
Applications for intervention in measures to promote and protect children and young people in vulnerable situations.
Requests for institutional intervention to safeguard minors.

Adoption and Civil Sponsorship

Adoption and civil sponsorship proceedings to strengthen affective ties.
Adoption processes.
Adoption, civil sponsorship and promotion of children’s rights in at-risk situations.

Intestate and Testamentary Succession

Early structuring of inheritances, including drafting of testamentary dispositions.
Advisory on drafting wills without infringing forced heirship rules (legítima).
Succession planning and will drafting.
Support in drafting sealed (closed) wills.
Wills for foreigners and cross-border situations.
Qualification of heirs and acceptance or repudiation of inheritance.
Heir qualification procedures.

Repudiation of Inheritance

Management of repudiated inheritances transferred to minor children.
Forced heirship and rights of protected heirs.
Advisory on drafting wills without violating forced heirship.
Mediation in disputes between beneficiaries and challenges to legacies.
Resolution of conflicts among heirs.

Partition and Inventory of Estate

Advisory on heir qualification procedures and division of estate assets.
Management of inventories and liquidations arising from death or separation.
Inventory proceedings.
Extrajudicial or judicial inventories and partitions, whether due to death or separation.
Judicial and extrajudicial partitions.
Inventories and management of hereditary estates.
Challenges to dispositions and patrimonial mediation.
Challenge of wills.
Representation in proceedings challenging wills or partitions.

Succession Planning

Asset management and matrimonial agreements.
Strategies to safeguard economic interests in family dynamics.
Succession planning.
Mediation and negotiation in succession proceedings, promoting consensual agreements in complex, extrajudicial contexts.

Practice Areas – International Scope

Jurisdiction in Matrimonial Matters

Review of foreign decisions and migratory regularization for international families.
Review of foreign judgments on partitions, maintenance, parental responsibility and/or inheritance.
Homologation of foreign marriages.
Homologation of divorces registered abroad.

Parental Responsibilities and Child Abduction

Advisory in cross-border contexts involving child abduction.
Urgent precautionary proceedings, such as judicial delivery of minors or urgent asset protection measures.

Applicable Law in International Successions

Wills for foreigners and cross-border situations.
Analysis and choice of legal regime for wills and marriages involving foreigners.
Successions involving foreign citizens and children.

Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Decisions

Review of foreign judgments on partitions, maintenance, parental responsibility and/or inheritance.
Legal support to international families with members residing abroad or assets located outside Portugal.

Protection of Vulnerable Adults

Interventions in cases of dependency, curatorship or accompaniment measures for adults.
Proceedings for accompanied adults (maior acompanhado).
Appointment of guardians and/or curators in wills where beneficiaries are minors and/or incapacitated.
Advisory on matters related to economic dependency, incapacity or interdiction.

Complementary Support

Family mediation and support in extrajudicial negotiations.
Representation in urgent precautionary proceedings.
Precautionary measures to protect assets at patrimonial risk.
Urgent proceedings involving domestic violence, parental responsibility regulation, or requests for intervention by child
protection institutions.
Nationality, residence and visa proceedings.
Regularization of nationality, residence permits, family reunions.
Nationality and dual nationality proceedings.