Joana Bernardo

Joined VdA in 2010. Managing Associate of the Investigations & White-Collar practice.

Advises on criminal litigation matters, with a focus on economic and financial crimes and regulatory and misdemeanours, notably in the banking, communications, insurance, health, pharmaceutical, and energy sectors, covering various fields of law, including environmental, competition and privacy law.

Has extensive experience in corporate risk management, advising both national and multinational entities on the design and development of compliance programmes in the fields of corruption prevention, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing, and whistleblower protection.

Advises on international sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United Nations and supports the defence in non-compliance investigations.

Assists clients in ongoing cases of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Conducts internal investigations to prepare companies’ defences following the launch of sanction procedures and in the context of due diligence exercises and periodic compliance reviews.

Law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

Attended the Master’s degree in Forensic Legal Sciences at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

1st Specialisation Course in Compliance and Criminal Law organised by the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra.

Attended the 1st Postgraduate Course on Law Enforcement, Compliance and Criminal Law in Banking, Financial and Economic Activities, organised by the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Sciences (IDPCC) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

Before joining the firm she worked at Commission for the Efficiency of the Enforcement Procedures as member of the Executive Board.

  • Joana Bernardo, Filipa Baeta & Patrícia Lemos Peixoto, “Recursos interlocutórios em processo de contraordenação da concorrência” (Interlocutory appeals in competition offence proceedings), in A Prática do Contencioso – Reflexões e Tendências de Direito Substantivo e Processual, Coord. Frederico Gonçalves Pereira, Almedina, 2024

Admitted to the Portuguese Bar Association.

Member of Fórum Penal (the Portuguese Criminal Justice Forum).

 

English.

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