Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados partner Carlos José Santos da Silva took up his position as president of influential Brazilian law firm association Centro de Estudos das Sociedades de Advogados (CESA) at a ceremony held in São Paulo last night.

Other new directors at CESA also began their terms yesterday. Silva and his vice-president, Moira Huggard-Caine of TozziniFreire Advogados, will remain in their positions until 2018. His predecessor, Carlos Roberto Fornes Mateucci of Yarshell, Mateucci e Camargo Advogados, becomes a permanent member of the council.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," said Silva in his speech at the ceremony. "With every day that passes, our profession suffers various attacks - but those making the attacks rarely pause to think that attacking our profession is acting against the liberty of society."