Isabela Moraes Sarmento

Isabela Sarmento

Associate, Public and Administrative Law & Regulatory, Lisbon

“What drives me is finding solutions. I specialise in Public Law, since it involves complex, large-scale projects that represent a transversal mix of challenging legal issues, requiring in-depth understanding of the matters at hand, combined with an eye for detail and a mind for management of the different layers of the issues.”

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Overview

Isabela Moraes Sarmento is an associate in the Public and Administrative Law & Regulatory practice in the Finance and Energy & Infrastructure department of the Lisbon office. She advises domestic and international clients on all regulatory, environmental and public law issues of M&A and financing transactions and projects in highly regulated sectors, such as the energy, infrastructure and telecommunications sectors.

Her practice has focused on Public & Administrative Law matters, assisting national and foreign clients, such as banks, investment funds and corporate clients, on administrative, environmental and public law issues and regulatory aspects relevant to their day-to-day business, having also advised clients in all phases of procurement, from the due diligence to the negotiation and structuring of public works and energy infrastructure contracts, to the performance & hand over stages of public works contracts. She furthermore advised clients on Public Law contentious issues related to administrative agreements and public procurement and concession agreements, such as Covid-19 implications on contract performance. 

Her experience further includes providing assistance to start-ups and early-stage companies in Portugal, notably in the payments industry.

Professional experience

Isabela joined Linklaters Lisbon office in 2023 as associate in Public and Administrative Law & Regulatory in the Finance and Energy & Infrastructure department. 

She started her legal career in 2017 as Summer Trainee at the local law firm CS´ Associados, where she became a trainee lawyer in 2018 and an associate in 2021, working in the Public Law & Regulatory practice of the firm.

Education and qualifications

Isabela holds a Law Degree of the School of Law of the Catholic University of Portugal (2018), winning an award for her academic merits. She currently is in the process of obtaining her Master´s Degree in Administrative Law at the said School of Law.

Isabella furthermore attended an Intensive Course on Competition Law and Policy at the London School of Economics (2017).
She is a fully qualified Member of the Portuguese Bar Association since 2021.

Isabela speaks French and Spanish, and is fluent in Portuguese and English.