挪威四大律师事务所之一的威宝已经和巴西领先的律所之一VRBG律所达成独家最佳伙伴联盟关系，此举标志着挪威、中国和拉丁美洲在海洋、石油和天然气板块的合作日渐升温。
威宝律所的上海主理合伙人斯伟庚说：「挪威拥有（深水）技术，中国拥有资金，而巴西拥有机会。这个三角将在未来几年内变得非常重要。上海的增长已经是极具爆发性的了，如今我们在这里的一半以上的律师都是一年之内才来这里的。此外，在巴西市场上，纯海洋领域之外，在能源和资源板块还有着许多采矿业的机会。巴西的基础设施还有待发展；因此在矿区到海岸的运输方面还存在着严峻的挑战。这为中国公司提供了基础设施领域的可能机会，我们认为他们将在今后几年内大力投资这个领域。」
在和VRBG的合作举措之前不久，威宝刚刚和一家中国国有公司举行了启动签字仪式，使得威宝律所成为这家具有政府背景的公司可以在今后三年合作共事的少数外国律所之一。委员会的任命于二零一一年五月二十日日在北京签署。
斯伟庚说，预计中国投资流入巴西能源板块的数额要大于巴西流入中国的，尽管也有来自巴西总领事馆的非正式证据表明，有许多巴西公司也正在中国寻找机会。斯伟庚说:「如今我们所看到的是，有多起共同的尝试。」
威宝上海办公室去年的业务超出预期目标百分之一百以上，今年也已经超出目标的百分之三十至四十。斯伟庚说：「我们的增长非常迅猛—很难对这个联合在短期内的增长贡献进行量化，但我们相信，这个合作使我们可以提供更为优质的服务，我们期望会有非常显著的增长。」
两家律所计划通过大量面对面的交流来发展牢固的关系。威宝计划让其挪威的律师全日制永久性驻扎于这个领域，并将有至少一名律师派驻在VRBG的巴西办公室。来自VRGB的巴西律师也将借调来上海办公—还有进一步的计划将他们送往威宝在筹备中的其他办公室。
巴西的半国营能源公司巴西石油公司是世界第三大能源公司，其市值（一千六百四十八亿美元）在全球公司中排名第八，最大股东是巴西政府。该公司通过一家第三方中间机构和威宝—VRBG联盟的一些客户签订了多项合同。
在回应关于成功获得这项潜在业务的询问时，斯伟庚说：「据我所知，我们所参与的海洋石油开采项目和其他复杂的海上项目，在数量上超过了世界上任何一家其他律所。在巴西，我们将会看到典型的海上作业，这是我们在其他的新兴石油&天然气市场所做过的，而技术密集型的西方公司和拥有充裕的对外投资资金并且积极进取的中国公司之间的合作也将大增。」
威宝目前在上海已经有将近二十名律师，人数几乎是二零零八年的三倍.
Norwegian Big Four firm Wikborg Rein has tied up with one of Brazil’s leading law firms Viera, Rezende, Barbosa e Guerreiro Advogados (VRBG) in an exclusive best-friends alliance – a move indicative of growing cooperation between Norway, China and Latin America in the maritime and the oil & gas sector.
"The [deep water] technology is in Norway, the money in China and the opportunities in Brazil,” Wikborg Rein’s Shanghai managing partner Geir Sviggum said. “This triangle is going to be extremely important in the years to come. Growth in Shanghai has been so explosive, more than half the lawyers we have here now, weren’t here a year ago. Additionally, in the Brazilian market, outside of pure maritime, there are a lot of mining opportunities in the energy and resources sector. Infrastructure in Brazil is underdeveloped; so there have been severe challenges in transportation from the mines to the coast. That opens up infrastructure possibilities for Chinese companies and we think they are going to be investing quite heavily in the years to come.”
The move to partner up with VRBG comes hot on the heels of an inaugural signing ceremony with a Chinese state owned company, listing Wikborg Rein as one of a very few foreign law firms the government-linked company is allowed to work with for the next three years. The panel appointment was inked on 20 May 2011 in Beijing.
According to Sviggum, investment flows in the energy sector are projected to be stronger from China inbound to Brazil although anecdotal evidence from the Brazilian counsel general has shown a number of Brazilian companies looking for opportunities in China as well. “What we are seeing now, are several joint efforts,” Sviggum said.
Wikborg Rein’s Shanghai office was more than 100% ahead of budget last year and is 30% to 40% ahead of budget this year. “We are growing very quickly – it’s hard to quantify how much this alliance will add to our short term growth but we believe that we will have a stronger offering with this cooperation and we expect the increase to be significant,’ he said.
The firms plan to develop strong ties through a large amount of face-to-face interaction. Wikborg Rein plans for its Norwegian lawyers to be permanently based in the field at all times, and will have at least one lawyer in VRBG’s Brazilian office. Brazilian lawyers from VRGB will also be based in Shanghai on secondments – with further plans to send them to other Wikborg Rein offices in the pipeline.
Semi-public Brazilian energy company Petrobras – the third largest energy company in the world; and the 8th biggest global company in terms of market value (US$164.8bn) of which its biggest stockholder is the government of Brazil – has awarded a number of contracts to clients of the Wikborg Rein-VRBG alliance through a third-party intermediary.
"As far as I am aware of, we have acted on more FPSO- and other complex offshore projects than any other law firm in the world,” Sviggum said in response to its success in capturing this potential pipeline of work. “In Brazil, we are going to see typical offshore work – which we have done in other emerging oil & gas markets - and a surge in co-operations between technology-heavy Western companies and cash-rich outbound, aggressive Chinese companies,” he said.
Wikborg Rein’s current headcount in Shanghai numbers close to 20 lawyers – almost tripled from its headcount in 2008.ALB
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