Carlos Portugal Gouvêa is a founding partner of PGLAW. He coordinates the corporate law, compliance, commercial contracts, and commercial litigation practice areas. Carlos has extensive experience working for financial institutions and investment funds, involving the negotiation and structuring of mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions, as well as acting as an arbitrator, legal expert and opinion writer in domestic and international disputes.

Previously, Carlos was a partner at Levy & Salomão Advogados in the corporate and mergers and acquisitions team, where he also coordinated the pro bono practice. Before that, he was a partner at Advocacia Portugal Gouvêa in São Paulo, and an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in the United States, working in the mergers and acquisitions and capital markets teams. Carlos is admitted to practice law before the courts of the State of New York, United States of America, and the Brazilian Bar Association, São Paulo Section (OAB/SP). He is also a member of the Capital Markets and Corporate Governance Committee of the Brazilian Bar Association, São Paulo Section.

Carlos is an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the University of São Paulo. He obtained his Habilitation (Livre-Docência) in 2022, and created the first undergraduate and graduate courses on corporate governance among all law schools in Brazil. He is the President and Director of IDGlobal – Institute for Global Law, one of the leading social and environmental justice think tanks in the Global South. At the University of São Paulo Law School, he coordinates several study groups, including the Corporate Governance Center (CGC-USP), the Banking Law Center (CDB-USP), the Third Sector Study Group (G3S-USP), TechLab – Law and Technology Lab, the Law, Health and Social Inequality Group (DS2-USP), the Business Law Review (RDM-USP), and the Center for Asian Legal Studies (CELA-USP).

Between 2015 and 2018, Carlos served as a board member of the National Financial System Appeals Council (CRSFN), having been nominated by the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association (ANBIMA). He was also nominated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve on the Fulbright Commission Board for Educational Exchange between the United States and Brazil (2020–2025).

He is the author of several books, including A Estrutura da Governança Corporativa (Quartier Latin, 2022) and Análise dos Custos da Desigualdade (Quartier Latin, 2021).