Helena Lobato is a lawyer registered with the Portuguese Bar Association, with an office on Rua Gil Eanes in Odivelas. She works in criminal law, family law, immigration and nationality, contracts and tenancies, debt and insolvency and company law, and also takes clients from Lisbon and the neighbouring municipalities.
Who you deal with
The practice is run by Helena Lobato, bar registration number 15866L. There is no intake team and there are no case managers: whoever takes the file is the one who argues it in court.
The size is deliberate. A limited number of cases makes it possible to know each one in detail, to reply quickly, and to attend every hearing in person.
Background
She read law at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa and has practised since 2001. The early years were spent on criminal proceedings and family law, which remain the centre of the work.
She went on to complete a postgraduate course in immigration and nationality law and training in family mediation. That is what explains the weight immigration cases now carry at the office: someone who arrives with a residence or nationality application almost always brings a family matter or a contract behind it.
Education and admission
- Degree
- Law, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa
- In practice
- Since 2001
- Bar registration
- Bar licence no. 15866L
- Postgraduate
- Immigration and Nationality Law
- Further training
- Family mediation
How the work is done
The first meeting is for understanding what is at stake and saying frankly whether this is the right office. When it is not, you are told who does handle it, which saves everyone time and money.
Once the case is taken on, the same lawyer stays with it from the first contact to the final decision, with no file changing hands halfway. Court documents are written in legal language because they have to be, but explanations are not: every step is explained in plain terms before it is taken.
Fees are agreed in writing before the work starts, with the payment terms set out, so no bill appears in the middle of a case.