By Brazil Stock Guide – At Pinheiro Neto, the entry point into the firm is often the beginning of a decades-long career. At one of Brazil’s largest and most prestigious law firms, 83% of partners started out as interns – an unusually high share of internally developed talent in a market known for fierce competition for top lawyers.
The firm ended 2025 with 116 partners, who have been at Pinheiro Neto for more than 25 years on average. The pattern extends beyond the partnership: roughly 88% of its legal professionals – including partners, consultants and associates — have built their careers within the firm.
Figures disclosed in Pinheiro Neto’s first Corporate Responsibility Report offer a rare glimpse into the scale of its operations. The firm ended 2025 with 919 employees, including 785 in São Paulo, 85 in Rio de Janeiro and 49 in Brasília. Women accounted for 55% of the workforce.
Founded in 1942, Pinheiro Neto has spent more than eight decades pursuing a largely organic growth model. It now operates across more than 40 areas of law and has offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Palo Alto and Tokyo. The firm serves Brazilian and international clients with operations in more than 80 countries.
A stable overall headcount, however, does not mean there was little movement. Pinheiro Neto hired 180 people and recorded 158 departures during 2025. Its hiring rate stood at 19.6%, while employee turnover was 17.2%. Average headcount remained broadly unchanged at 917.
The talent pipeline starts early. Pinheiro Neto added 24 new lawyers during the year and says it hires more than 100 interns annually. Twenty-two students took part in a program designed to bring law students into the firm during university breaks in 2025 – one of the entry points into a career model in which today’s intern can become a partner decades later.
Maintaining that pipeline requires investment. The firm’s in-house training school, established in 2012, offered more than 40 courses and over 300 hours of training in 2025, covering subjects ranging from technical legal skills to management and leadership. Junior lawyers received an average of 76 hours of training during the year, while interns averaged 74 hours.
Professional development also extends overseas. Thirty-six associates participated in international programs in 2025, including 10 internships abroad and 12 LL.M. programs. Investment in those initiatives totaled R$ 1.3 million.
Overall, Pinheiro Neto said it invested more than R$ 5.1 million in professional development during the year – spending that helps sustain a model in which talent development and succession are, to a large extent, built from within.
Pinheiro Neto does not publicly disclose its revenue, according to the firm’s press office.
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