Mediation and resolution
of corporate disputes
About
Ricardo Castorri is a Brazilian lawyer and neutral specialised in the resolution of shareholder and corporate disputes — particularly those involving public companies, private partnerships, family-owned businesses and other strategic arrangements that matter well beyond the financial interests at stake.
Ricardo has advised and represented clients in some of the most complex corporate disputes in Brazil over the past twenty years, none of which was finally resolved by adjudication; all settled out of court. Most of them, after years of litigation. Quite often, on terms that had been on the table from the outset of the dispute. And always at a considerable cost in increasingly scarce assets, such as time, attention and long-term relationships. In 2020, Ricardo established an independent practice entirely dedicated to the resolution of such disputes — first and foremost as mediator and settlement counsel but, more recently, also as arbitrator.
A law graduate of the University of São Paulo, Ricardo holds a master’s degree in negotiation and conflict resolution from Columbia University, in the city of New York, and trained as a mediator in Brazil and abroad, with certifications from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Fordham University School of Law and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR, London).
He began his career as a member of the M&A transaction team at Pinheiro Neto Advogados, one of Latin America’s leading law firms, and subsequently served as legal advisor to the board of the CVM, the Brazilian securities regulator. Before establishing his own practice, Ricardo helped found and lead Trindade Sociedade de Advogados, a corporate law and capital markets boutique where, for over a decade, he handled complex transactions and shareholder litigation, acting for multinational groups, institutional investors and Brazilian business families.
Practice
In Brazil, partnership disputes are seldom a strictly legal matter. They involve personal and familial histories, long-term plans and interests that, over time, naturally evolve and, eventually, collide. The past is always at the table, present — and the future remains at stake. In family-owned businesses especially, everything that is built to last puts down roots and leaves marks, while the new demands its place, without ceremony.
In the Brazilian way of doing business, whenever one reaches for the shareholders’ agreement in the drawer, the partnership has most likely ceased to function properly. Any resolution strategy centred solely on the legal or contractual dispute therefore relegates the underlying issues — and everything else that matters — to the background, stalling dialogue between the parties and eroding whatever trust remains between them.
Ricardo’s role is tailored to the requirements of each case: as mediator or joint advisor to all parties involved; as settlement counsel to one of the sides, working in close coordination with litigation counsel; or, where so appointed, as arbitrator. His practice covers the structuring, renegotiation and unwinding of partnerships and joint ventures — domestic and cross-border — as well as corporate deadlocks and governance crises, including disputes arising from M&A transactions. While his roles vary, Ricardo’s commitments and working tools — independence and candour, in any room — do not.
Engaging Ricardo does not entail ready-made solutions. As mediator and settlement counsel, he works first to restore dialogue and rebuild a minimum of trust between the parties — without which no settlement can hold, however sound it may look on paper. On that foundation, his goals are to shorten the dispute and reduce its costs, to salvage whatever remains worthy of preserving and finally to help the parties arrive at their new equilibrium. Conflict may be inevitable — but the terms on which it is resolved are always a matter of choice.
© Copyright 2026 | Ricardo Castorri.