Legal Professionals and Development Strategies: Corporate Lawyers and the Construction of the Telecoms Sector in Brazil (1980s-2010s)

61 Pages Posted: 24 Dec 2015 Last revised: 23 Apr 2017

See all articles by Fabio de Sa e Silva

Fabio de Sa e Silva

University of Oklahoma, College of International Studies, Department of International & Area Studies

David M. Trubek

University of Wisconsin Law School

Date Written: December 21, 2015

Abstract

This study explores the role of corporate lawyers in the construction and operation of a key area of the Brazilian economy over a 30-year period. It looks at three periods in the history of the Brazilian telecoms sector: the fall of state monopoly; global restructuring, neoliberalism, and privatization; and the recent resurgence of state activism. In the first three periods, lawyers worked to facilitate privatization and create a lightly regulated market for telecoms services that attracted foreign capital. Things changed, however, when the industry was faced with new industrial and social policies. In this period, lawyers oscillated between resistance to government intrusion and negotiated engagement with regulators. This sequence of events encompasses changes in the field of state power, hierarchies in the legal profession, and core-periphery relations, which invite new syntheses of existing theoretical traditions about law, lawyers, and capitalist development in emerging economies.

Keywords: law and development, legal profession

JEL Classification: K3, K4, L5, O1, O2, P16

Suggested Citation

de Sa e Silva, Fabio and Trubek, David M., Legal Professionals and Development Strategies: Corporate Lawyers and the Construction of the Telecoms Sector in Brazil (1980s-2010s) (December 21, 2015). Law and Social Inquiry, Forthcoming, Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1371, HLS Center on the Legal Profession Research Paper No. 2016-2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2706630 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2706630

Fabio De Sa e Silva (Contact Author)

University of Oklahoma, College of International Studies, Department of International & Area Studies ( email )

729 Elm Ave.
Farzaneh Hall, Room 304
Norman, OK 73019
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.ou.edu/cis/ias/faculty/

David M. Trubek

University of Wisconsin Law School ( email )

975 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706
United States

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