Catarina Franco Madeira
Partner
Catarina Franco Madeira, founding partner of Franco Zibaia, has been a lawyer and legal consultant for 17 years. Throughout her career, Catarina has provided legal advice and consultancy in the areas of Administrative Law, Public Procurement, Energy, Health, Regulation, Legal Drafting, Administrative and Civil Litigation and Arbitration. Catarina has also prepared procedures and monitored the execution of multiple public contracts with high technical and legal requirements, namely concessions, and has extensive experience in complex judicial and arbitration proceedings.
Catarina has worked in the energy and climate change sector, both through the provision of advice to different stakeholders, and in the implementation of projects and operations. She participated in the drafting of legislative and regulatory projects in these and in other areas, namely in the drafting of a climate framework Portuguese law project and in the creation of a regulatory authority in Angola.
Before founding Franco Zibaia, she provided high-level legal and strategic advice to several entities in the energy sector: the Board of Directors of the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE), the Board of Directors of Mobi.E (in charge of the electric mobility network in Portugal), and ADENE – Energy Agency.
Catarina practiced law for several years at top-tier law firms Vieira de Almeida and Garrigues. During this period, she also provided specialized consultancy, as a secondee, to the CTT Group.
Catarina obtained her Law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (2007) and has a Masters in Administrative Law from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University (2022), with a thesis about municipal low-voltage electricity distribution and local autonomy.
She also has postgraduate studies in Corporate Law from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University (2009), Public Procurement from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University (2010), Administrative and Tax Litigation from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (2012), Administrative Arbitration from the Faculty of Law of the of the University of Lisbon (2021) and Local Authority Law from the Faculty of Law of the of the University of Lisbon (2023). She participated in the Studies in Homage to Mário Esteves de Oliveira, with whom she collaborated for several years.
Writings and publications:
– “Recent developments in green public procurement: Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 132/2023 and the attempt to implement “imperative” ecological criteria”, in Revista de Direito Administrativo no. 20 (May-August 2024), VII, AAFDL.
– “Municipal distribution of low voltage electricity – a case of “emptying” of local autonomy?”, Master’s Thesis in Administrative Law, 2021 (unpublished).
– “The Europeanization of the administrative annulment period in the New Administrative Procedure Code: crisis in the stabilizing function of the act and the res judicata?”, in Estudos em homenagem a Mário Esteves de Oliveira, Almedina, 2017.
