Professional Master’s at FGV Sao Paulo Law School boosts careers and expands law firms’ activities

Busy work routines at law firms and other types of companies mean that many successful legal professionals put off continuing their academic education. The reasons for this postponement include the curricula of traditional master’s programs, which as a rule require full time dedication, and their research models, which are often not suited to the professional goals of those in the legal market. In order to meet these professionals’ education demands, the FGV Sao Paulo Law School created its professional master’s program in 2013. Hundreds of people have since graduated from this pioneering professional course, and according to former students, it has had a positive impact not only on their careers, but also on the law firms where they work.

“The FGV Sao Paulo Law School’s professional master’s program boosted my career exactly as I wanted, which was extremely gratifying for me,” says lawyer Renan Tadeu Soares, who holds a master’s in business law. “I was promoted to partner at SABZ Advogados, several doors in the academic world opened for me, and I became more recognized in the market,” says Bruno Aguiar, who has a master’s in tax law from the FGV Sao Paulo Law School and is a partner at Rayes & Fagundes Advogados.

According to Aguiar, his law firm recognized in him the professional maturity needed to be made a partner, and the firm has since repositioned itself as a specialist in complex litigation, insolvency and the real estate market.

The former student says that studying for a professional master’s added to his professional self-confidence. “It increased my credibility among my peers and clients,” he says.

According to Sérgio Ricardo Nutti Marangoni, who has a master’s degree in business law from the FGV Sao Paulo Law School, the value added by his professional master’s benefited him personally more than it benefited the firm of which he is a founding partner and where he has worked since graduating from law school. “However, after doing the master’s program, several other professionals from the firm, including partners and senior lawyers, also decided to study for a professional master’s at the FGV Sao Paulo Law School,” he says. “I think it’s a clear example of a positive impact and transmission of culture.”

About the program

Bruno Aguiar says that he had wanted to study for a master’s degree since graduating as a lawyer, but his professional activity and family routine made him postpone the decision. “When some colleagues commented on the excellence of the professors, the depth of the content and debates, the high level of the students, and all in the context of a professional, less academic purpose, I had no doubts and I signed up immediately,” he recounts. “It exceeded all my expectations, above all because of the concern from day one to closely monitor each student’s pace and equip them with all the tools to build their thesis from the outset.”

Renan Tadeu Soares says that he decided to do a professional master’s at the FGV Sao Paulo Law School because he believed that it would bring together the best aspects of academic and professional fields. “This belief was confirmed throughout the course: the professors and students proved to be highly qualified professionals, with excellent training and in-depth professional experience, and this enabled constant learning and the strengthening of great connections,” he says. “In my opinion, the program’s distinctive features that are most relevant to my work and my law firm are specialization, networking and the connection between the professional and academic worlds.”

For Sérgio Marangoni, the program meant reconnecting with the academic world. “I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Sao Paulo in 1991 and started my master’s in commercial law in 1993. I obtained all the credits but then dropped out without finishing my thesis,” he says. “I started my own law firm as soon as I graduated, and I couldn’t manage to look after the firm and also complete my master’s degree. Another factor is that I didn’t have the necessary experience in the legal world to enable me to write a good thesis.”

He says that for 20 years, there was an academic void in his work as a lawyer. “When I heard that the FGV Sao Paulo Law School had created a professional master’s program and I learned of its characteristics, I had no doubt and immediately applied. It was a chance to return to the academic world, at a time when I now had extensive professional experience and was in a position to dedicate myself to my master’s thesis.” According to him, the main features of the course are its multidisciplinary approach and thesis model. “These characteristics alone make you ‘think outside the box,’ creating a welcoming and stimulating environment at the same time,” he says.

Research model: Close links to reality

The research model is precisely one of the most important features of the FGV Sao Paulo Law School’s professional master’s program that leads law professionals to opt for it. Unlike a traditional thesis, this model seeks to bring together traditional dogma-based doctrinal research (which often ignores the factual context and remains hermetic) with pervasive empirical research (more oriented by reality than by methodological particularities). The resulting research can explore complex problems, notable cases or under-formalized legal practices, leading to theses of practical use that can contribute to solving concrete problems in the legal field.

According to Bruno Aguiar, the program allowed him to deepen his research for his thesis, yielding practical applications for his business. “I believe that the thesis model is the biggest advantage of the professional master’s program,” he says. Renan Tadeu Soares, whose thesis was cited during a Superior Court of Appeals judgment of a leading case in his research field, says that his professors were always helpful and the infrastructure made available to students greatly facilitated the research carried out during the course.

Sérgio Marangoni gives an example of the applicability of research in the professional master’s program. “My thesis was the result of a practical case at my law firm, which inspired my research and my search for solutions in the academic world. At the end of my master’s degree, with the thesis ready and my book published, the thesis helped us deal with a practical case,” he explains. “I believe that the academic world and the daily practice of law are a two-way street, involving interaction and symbiosis. The impacts are reciprocal: the academic world provides tools for direct use in legal practice, such as knowledge of doctrine and research sources, and cutting-edge perspectives, among other things. In turn, the daily practice of law is a source of questions that inspire the academic world. It’s about applying the evolving law in practice.”

Creation of professional doctoral program

In addition to the shared experience of enhancing their careers and the success of their research, the three master’s graduates have something else in common: they have all just joined the recently created professional doctoral program at the FGV Sao Paulo Law School, whose first edition will begin in August of this year. This pioneering legal course came about as a natural offshoot of the school’s successful experience with its professional master’s program. The aim of the course is to train leaders with the potential to transform legal practice in their area by designing functional and innovative solutions, preferably involving the use of advanced technologies. Students should also be able to identify areas for improvement and advocate for changes to current legislation.

To find out more about the FGV Sao Paulo Law School’s professional master’s program, visit the school’s website.