Nancy Gombossy de Melo Franco

Experience

More than 20 years’ experience in complex judicial and advisory litigation involving matters related to the entire agribusiness chain, from the purchase and sale of commodities, leasing and rural partnerships, the supply of inputs, guarantees specific to the sector and logistical issues. Practice in agrarian, possessory and rural real estate law. Secondment in agribusiness companies. Author and co-author of several legal articles involving strategic issues of interest to the agribusiness sector and participation as a speaker at the main events in the agribusiness sector. She has been a permanent member of the OAB/SP agribusiness committee since 2013.

Areas of Practice

– Civil litigation and pre-litigation advisory, focused on agribusiness;
– Agricultural, real estate and agribusiness law; and
– Judicial reorganization and bankruptcy.

Track Record

– Credit recovery and judicial defense of the interests of trading companies, input companies and the sugar-energy and biofuels sector, in commercial disputes involving the financing of agricultural activities, the purchase and sale of commodities, CPRs and the most common rural guarantees (pledge and fiduciary alienation);

– Judicial defense of the interests of companies in the agribusiness sector in disputes involving the termination of various contractual relationships for the provision of services typical of the agribusiness sector, distribution and commercial representation, within the scope of their core activities;

– Judicial defense of the interests of companies in the agribusiness sector in contractual and non-contractual indemnity actions for damages alleged in the exercise of their activity (area spraying, neighborhood relations, accidents under the jurisdiction of the civil courts, provision of agricultural services and supply of inputs and seeds);

– Judicial defense of the interests of companies in the sugar-energy and biofuels sector in contractual and possessory disputes involving leases and rural partnerships, regulated by the Land Statute;

– Intervening as amicus curiae in strategic lawsuits in the sector before the Supreme Courts, representing associations in the agribusiness sector;

– Defense of the interests of trading companies, input companies and the sugar-energy and biofuels sector in civil investigations and public civil actions involving alleged overweight truck traffic;

– Legal disputes involving storage, lifting and the provision of port services on a take-or-pay basis, between trading companies and port terminals;

– Judicial defense of the interests of trading companies in the construction of case law in favor of the viability of charging washout or Market to Market in the event of default on raw material origination contracts;

– Judicial disputes over the constitutionality of aerial spraying of pesticides;

– Defense in administrative regulatory proceedings involving questions about the regular operation of companies in the agribusiness sector, especially industrial and storage activities;

– Judicial defense of creditors’ interests in various judicial reorganizations, notably in agribusiness and in the judicial reorganization of rural producers, with involvement in the main discussions and leading cases on the subject, including the nature of the rural producer’s registration with the Board of Trade, the moment of incorporation and the submission of credits to the procedure, the family economic group and its active legitimacy in judicial reorganization, the extraconcurrence of some guarantees and CPRs and the essentiality of capital assets;

– Representation of creditors in the financing of companies undergoing judicial reorganization, either through support as strategic financing creditors or via DIP financing;

– Pre-litigation advisory services for trading companies, input companies and companies in the sugar-energy and biofuels sector, in relation to transactions typical of their business, notably in the origination of raw materials and disagreements with commercial partners and service providers; and

– Drafting and reviewing internal manuals on commercial conduct in raw material origination contracts and typical agricultural contracts, with a view to the latest case law.

Most recent national and international recognition
– Highlighted in Chambers Latin America in the area of agribusiness and as Leading Individual, since 2013;
– Análise Advocacia – 2 mentions and 1st place in the Specialized/Agrarian category;
– Análise Mulher – 7 mentions and 1st place in the Specialized/Agrarian category;
– Leaders League – Leader in Agribusiness
– The Legal 500;
– Who is Who Legal Brazil;
– Best Lawyers International – Agriculture & Rural Affairs; and
– Latin Lawyer 250 – Litigation

Academic background

– Insper – LL.M in Contract Law;
– Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo – Postgraduate in Civil Procedural Law; and
– Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo – Law Degree.