Also known as Juca, Oliveira Lima has more than thirty years of experience and recognition in the legal world
The banker and owner of Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, imprisoned in the Federal Penitentiary of Brasília, announced this Friday, the 13th, the change of his defense.
To replace criminalist Pierpaolo Bottini, lawyer José Luís de Oliveira Lima was chosen, who has also defended prominent political figures, such as PT member and former minister of the Civil House José Dirceu and Bolsonaro’s former minister, Walter Braga Netto, arrested and convicted for participating in the coup plot.
Also known as Juca, Oliveira Lima has more than thirty years of experience and recognition in the legal world. He was elected twice among the hundred most influential Brazilians by Época magazine and, according to the website of the firm of which he is a partner, Oliveira Lima & Dall’Acqua Advogados, he is considered one of “the fifteen most important lawyers in Brazil”.
He was also president of the Rights and Prerogatives Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association of São Paulo (OAB-SP) and the São Paulo Lawyers Assistance Fund (CAASP); director of the São Paulo Lawyers Association (AASP); and advisor to OAB-SP. He is currently a member of the São Paulo Lawyers Institute (IASP).
Unlike his predecessor in Vorcaro’s defense, Oliveira Lima is seen as a lawyer more in favor of a plea bargain. The change in defense is a sign that Daniel Vorcaro’s next steps may be to collaborate with the investigations, with the delivery of new information.
It was also this Friday that the Second Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) maintained Vorcaro’s preventive detention. As shown by Estadão, the banker told his defense team that he decided to negotiate a plea bargain agreement.
Defense of politicians
Juca has already represented in defense people who work on opposing sides in political chess. In 2012, he was José Dirceu’s lawyer in the Mensalão case. Last year, he defended Braga Netto in the trial of coup acts in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which culminated in the sentencing of the former Minister of Defense and the Civil House of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to 26 years in prison.
With good traffic and circulation at the Supreme Court, he met with practically all the ministers of the First Panel – which carried out the trial –, with the exception of Minister Cármen Lúcia. At the time, he complained that the defense did not have full access to the records and stated that he believed that the process was being accelerated, which prevented him from analyzing more than 100,000 pages of the complaint.
Even so, in a conversation with Estadão in March last year, on the eve of the trial, the lawyer stated that he was against demonstrations – led by Bolsonarists – of attacks on the STF.
“I don’t like attacking the Federal Supreme Court. I don’t like attacking the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court. I like talking about these issues in the case (…) I can appeal a decision of the Court. I can point out that I understand that the decision is wrong. Now, attacking the Federal Supreme Court, I won’t do it”, he said.
Regarding having already defended people from different sides of politics, he stated, in the same interview, that defending the left “has much more charm” and garners more vehement public support from certain sectors.
“As I said, I have been working for 35 years. I have defended people with a more left-wing ideology, as I have defended people with a more right-wing ideology. And this case (the trial of the coup acts) taught me one thing: defending the left is more charming for the academy, for entities and for the press itself. It has much more charm”, he stated.
*Estadão Content
