Overview
Carmina Pina is a Counsel in the Lisbon office specialising in Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations, bringing over a decade of experience across the practice’s three core areas.
Focusing on banking, financial services and investment funds disputes, Carmina has successfully represented a diverse client base in complex, high-profile disputes across state courts and international arbitral tribunals, her expertise spanning all contentious and pre-contentious advisory work.
Carmina has extensive experience in contentious regulatory matters, comprising both risk management and representing clients in reputationally sensitive matters including regulators' investigations, disciplinary proceedings and supervisory interventions, both at domestic level and involving foreign enforcement authorities (U.K. and U.S.A.).
Carmina is part of Linklaters’ ESG Group, working within a cross-practice and cross-jurisdictional team in the rapidly changing ESG space. She is also deeply involved in various innovation and legal technology initiatives at the firm, including the European Innovation Forum, a pan-European group aimed at leveraging technology use and to drive change across the practice.
Experience
- Advising and acting on behalf of Novo Banco in several disputes related to Novo Banco’s incorporation as the first bridge bank in Portugal following the banking resolution of Banco Espírito Santo.
- Advising and acting on behalf of Novo Banco in several matters pertaining the management of its contractual relationships with Venezuelan State-owned customers, following Venezuela’s constitutional crisis, including strategic and regulatory guidance as well as court representation in several court proceedings, including a c. €1.3bn lawsuit brought by the Venezuelan entities.
- Successfully representing two Portuguese banks in over 60 court proceedings pertaining to miss-selling of financial products, brought both by retail and corporate clients (including a standalone €180m claim launched by the world’s largest cork processing group), in a novel and untested regulatory background.
- Advising and acting on behalf of a global investment management firm in disputes related to the purchase and development of one of Portugal’s largest shopping centre.
- Advising and acting on behalf of a big four audit firm in the context of the first regulatory investigations launched by the Portuguese Securities Commission (CMVM) since this entity has supervising powers over auditing firms in Portugal.
- Advising and acting on behalf of a big four audit firm in the context of an internal investigation (and later SEC investigation) into bribery and facilitation payments in Angola.
- Advising E.ON in a claim filed with the European Court of Human Rights regarding an award issued by the Portuguese Supreme Court in relation to a wind farm located in Portugal, in which E.ON holds a 45% shareholding.
- Representing Pfizer on several matters, including dozens of arbitration proceedings related to the infringement of patents for different active substances and regulatory aspects related to marketing authorisations.
Admissions