João Ascenso

João Ascenso is a Partner at Ethikos Services. He has seen business from three sides: the firm he founded, the farm he manages and the room where the rules are debated. Your company gets all three.

He was a founding partner of AAMTLegal, the law firm that went on to become Ethikos Portugal, where he is a Partner leading the Tax and Corporate departments. He is also a shareholder and the manager of an olive oil farm. The costs come months before the harvest. The market sets the price. João knows what it is to have his own money riding on a decision.

He knows what investors look for. At Ethikos Portugal, he structures foreign investments, so he has seen what gets checked before anyone commits. He coordinates tax compliance when companies and their employees relocate, so he understands what a move demands, step by step.

He sees how the rules get made. João is a member of Portugal’s Economic and Social Council. As President of the National Association of Liberal Professions, he regularly meets Government Members and Parliamentary Groups on tax and social security legislation. That social dialogue has taught him to find agreement between people who start far apart, and to see change coming before it reaches your business.

He can explain all of it. As a Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, and at the Military Academy, he taught Tax Law, Economics, International Economic Law and Financial Markets. When a decision is complicated, you want someone beside you who can put it in plain words.

At Ethikos Services, João is not your lawyer. He sits with the team on the business side of the table, testing the plan before the money is spent: what to invest in, in what order, when it comes back. If your company is about to make a decision that is hard to undo, talk to him first.