Special Counsel Norman Nadorff, is located in Houston and works extensively with the firm’s Rio de Janeiro office. His practice centers on energy law and transactions and ethics law compliance.
For 30 years, Norman served as in-house counsel for major oil companies with primary focus on Latin America, West Africa and Indonesia. He was Senior Counsel for BP in Angola from 2006 to 2015 as well as Legal Manager for BP Brazil and ARCO Indonesia, where he held two expatriate assignments in the 1990’s.
Norman has dealt with a wide range of commercial contracts, including farmout, unitization, joint operating, study and bidding, EPC, drilling and wellsite services, gas sales, shareholder, joint venture, and project finance agreements, as well as a wide variety of host government granting instruments.
At ARCO, Norman wrote the Company’s policies on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, US Anti-boycott laws and US Export Regulations. He has participated in corruption, fraud, conflict of interest and hostage-taking investigations and helped resolve various commercial disputes.
A law professor at the University of Houston Law Center since 2012, Norman has taught International Petroleum Agreements in several other U.S. and foreign law schools, including Agostinho Neto University Faculty of Law in Angola (“FDUAN”). In 2006, he played key roles in the creation of a pioneering international oil and gas postgraduate program at FDUAN, which is in its sixteenth year. Norman lectures frequently on petroleum law, anti-corruption laws, contract drafting and negotiations, and development of local talent.
Norman is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, proficient in French, and has experience negotiating in all three languages. He is currently a Director of the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce and a former Director of the Association of International Energy Negotiators in which he is active in several capacities, including Co-Chair of the 2022 and 2023 Model Contracts Workshops and member of the Education Advisory Board.
Gonçalo Falcão, is a partner in the Rio de Janeiro office of Tauil & Chequer Advogados´ International Tax Matters and Corporate & Securities practices. He represents clients around the globe and particularly throughout Africa, including Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé & Príncipe. Much of his work in these countries involves representing oil and gas exploration and production companies and service providers. Gonçalo also has substantial experience in oil and gas, corporate, foreign investment, labor and immigration, and foreign exchange matters. He is licensed to practice law in both Brazil and Portugal.
Before joining that firm, he practiced law for five years at offices in Portugal and Brazil as a member of the Miranda Law Firm. He also practiced in Portugal from 1998 to 2004 with several other firms, including KPMG (as Tax Manager), Castro Silva & Associados and Arthur Andersen. Gonçalo is fluent in English and Spanish as well as Portuguese.
Filipe Cardoso, has a bachelor degree in Law from Nanterre Paris X in France and a Master Degree in International Business Law from Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
He has been working in the Oil Industry at Sonangol E.P., Angolan’s National Oil Company, since the beginning of his career in 2005 and has been Head of the Legal Department of Sonangol Gás Natural and is currently Head of Legal Department of Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção.
Filipe has been dealing with Angolan main oil and gas projects such as Angola ALNG, the New Gas Consortium and also with Sonangol’s international investments.
Filipe is also a member of the Angolan Bar Association.
Christian Castro, has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Catholic University of Argentina, a post-grad degree in Companies Law and a LLM in O&G from the Agostinho Neto University in Angola. Christian joined Chevron’s affiliate in Angola (Cabinda Gulf Oil Company) in 2011. Between 2015 and 2017, Christian worked in Houston, Texas for the Chevron Corporation in the Major Transactions Law Group. During that time, he held a transactional role in several negotiations across Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago and Argentina). He has been the head of Chevron’s legal department in Angola since 2019, and his team has been leading major transactions in Angola and Congo since then (Block 0 concession extension and the New Gas Consortium in Angola, and the Haute Mer concession extension in Congo). Christian is currently the head of the ACEPA legal committee in Angola.
Shakwa Nyambe, is the founder and managing partner of the law firm SNC Incorporated, with the main office in Windhoek, Namibia. He is a specialist energy, natural resources, and commercial lawyer and is an expert in the drafting, reviewing, and negotiating of contracts. He has advised international corporations, state-owned enterprises, governments, individuals in oil & gas, renewable energy, mining projects, and provided legal services to foreign investors in matters ranging from M&A, commercial transactions, and corporate governance to project financing. His clients include some of the oil and gas companies, renewable energy companies, mining companies, construction and infrastructure companies, State Owned Enterprises, Governments, and corporate entities.
Shakwa previously worked as a Legal Counsel at the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, as a Chief Legal Officer at the Ministry of Justice, Namibia and as a State Advocate at the High Court of Namibia. Shakwa recently joined the Executive Committee of the Association of International Energy Negotiators’ (AIEN) Board of Directors as the new Vice President for Communications after having served as the Director of the African Chapter for the past three years. Shakwa also serves on the AIEN JOA Committee, LNG, SPA Committee, Asset Sale and Purchase Agreement Committee and the Drilling Contract Committee as well as on the Hydrogen Taskforce, among other roles. He is a legal practitioner of the High Court and Supreme Court of Namibia.
Cláudia Lafayette Rocha, has a bachelor degree in Law from Universidade do Minho, in Portugal, with a postgraduate degree in Oil & Gas Law and Management from Universidade Agostinho Neto, in Angola.
She has been working as in-house counsel in Esso Angola / ExxonMobil since 2013, where she began her career in the oil industry and where she currently continues to act as Senior Lawyer. Part of an international and integrated law function, Cláudia has directly participated in the negotiation of HCAs, JOAs and fiscal incentives for important new venture projects in Angola. She also has substantial experience in the negotiation and risk distribution of upstream supply chain agreements.