Speaker details

Biography

Claudia Santos Cruz is a Partner with the Morais Leitão Legal Circle / MDR Advogados in Maputo, Mozambique. She advises clients on the international and cross-border aspects of investments in Portugal and Lusophone Africa, with a particular focus on Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. Claudia co-heads the firm’s Lusophone Africa practice team and coordinates her firm's international Oil & Gas team and its Shipping practice. She is also active in banking and finance, corporate and M&A, infrastructure, projects, natural resources, and foreign investment matters. Her work regularly involves highly regulated sectors and complex transactions across emerging markets. Claudia was born in Mozambique, grew up in South Africa, and holds Portuguese and Mozambican nationality. She trained and practised as an English solicitor in London from 1994 to 2005 at DLA Piper and Watson Farley & Williams. Admitted as an English solicitor (1996), to the Portuguese Bar (2005) and Mozambique Bar Association (2018). Claudia has been an active member and officer of the International Bar Association since 2007. Her IBA roles have included Vice-Chair of the European Regional Forum in 2009 and 2011, Senior Vice-Chair of the European Regional Forum in 2012 and 2013, Officer of the Oil & Gas Law Committee from 2021. She is currently Vice-Chair of the IBA’s African Regional Forum and serves as an officer of the Oil & Gas Law Committee, including as African Regional Forum Liaison Officer. She is also regularly involved in IBA conferences.