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Who are we and what do we do? In one sentence: we tailor Morais Leitão’s “full service” to cater for high growth companies.
 
Following up on know-how gathered over the last decade, Morais Leitão decided to set up Team Genesis in order to cater for specific needs of emerging/growth companies and their investors (venture capital and private equity). Our work focuses predominantly on tech and life sciences.
By leveraging Morais Leitão’s international network (through our Morais Leitão Legal Circle or global alliances Lex Mundi and L&E Global), Team Genesis has been particularly active in advising our clients in their international expansion efforts. We act as PMO (project manager owner) effectively coordinating local counsel and the client’s matters with a single main point of contact.
We specialize in “bet the company” transactions. The team is extremely active and experienced in national and international  investment rounds and exits, notably equity rounds (seed and preferred rounds), convertible notes (or convertible equity/advanced subscription), venture debt and trade sales (including acqui-hires), advising both founders and investors.
Our lawyers have been very active in providing high value regulatory advice, i.e., regulatory validation of business models, new products at inception and/or when scaling to new geographies/jurisdictions.

Multidisciplinary

The team consists of 16 practitioners from Morais Leitão specialized in different segments of law and was designed to anticipate and respond to Client’s needs by rescaling and adapting the ‘full service law firm’ concept to the emerging companies' environment.

Internationalisation

We help Clients to scale by taking advantage of our singular international strategic position through our network Morais Leitão Legal Circle – including legal firms in Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique–,  but also with the world’s leading network of independent law firms, Lex Mundi (125+ countries worldwide and access to 22,000 lawyers around the world), where Morais Leitão is the exclusive Portuguese member.

Giving Back - Seedsummit

Team Genesis® partnered with Seedcamp, and beta-i to launch Seedsummit Portugal: simplified investment documentation to support the Portuguese startup ecosystem.

Commitment to the Ecosystem

With a view to foster the Portuguese startup ecosystem, Team Genesis® works very closely with all top accelerators, incubators and universities in Portugal, notably, via workshops or office hours. Team Genesis® is also an active participant in innovation think thanks where our legal and regulatory expertise is crucial.

What they say about us

“Superb venture capital practice” and “a top-tier team that is very strong at all levels”. ML “provides excellent value for money in complex matters” while being “really familiar with local practices and understanding the positions and concerns of international clients”.

Chambers and Partners - Europe Guide (2022)

Morais Leitão has an impressive multidisciplinary FinTech practice. "The firm is very accessible and are always available to answer our requests. They are able to bring in inputs from other areas inside the law firm with efficiency."

Chambers and Partners - FinTech Guide (2022)

Every team member is very knowledgeable, able to explain complex legal cases and also very approachable. The dedication that the team has shown is admirable and this is reflected in the high quality of work which was always delivered on time.

Legal 500