Professor Rui P. Dias

Rui Pereira Dias is Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, where he presented his first thesis on substantive and conflict-of-laws aspects of shareholders' liability for harmful influence exercised upon directors of publicly held companies.

He has also been an invited professor at the University of Porto, where he graduated first in his class, and held post-graduate courses and conferences in South Africa, Angola, Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Germany. He published articles in Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian and German law reviews in the fields of Private International Law, International Litigation and Arbitration, and Company Law.

Rui studied in Porto, Heidelberg and Coimbra, having also benefited from fellowships of the Max-Planck-Society and of Santander for research stays in Hamburg, Germany, and São Paulo, Brazil, respectively. He holds an LL.M. ('11) by the New York University School of Law (on International Business Regulation, Litigation and Arbitration), where he studied with a Fulbright scholarship.

After delivering his thesis in 2015 on choice-of-forum clauses in company law-related litigation, publicly discussed and approved summa cum laude in July 2017, he received tenure at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra.

Rui is the Editorial Secretary of the Portuguese leading Company Law Review (DSR - Direito das Sociedades em Revista), and part of the team responsible for the ongoing seven-volume project of a Commentary of the Portuguese Companies Act (Código das Sociedades Comerciais em Comentário, IDET/Almedina), where he is in charge of, among others, the rules on Financial Reporting and International Company Law, including Groups of Companies.

Since 2013, he is also a Vice-President of the Deutsch-Lusitanische Juristenvereinigung e.V., the Portuguese-German Lawyers Association.

Rui is admitted to practice in Portugal and has acted as independent legal consultant in complex commercial transactions and litigation. He speaks Portuguese, English, German, Spanish, French and Italian.