Inside Asian Gaming

JULY 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 47 INDUSTRY PROFILE “I think it is very difficult to be in Macau as a lawyer and not have any exposure to gaming … If your clients are not directly related to gaming, they are indirectly related to gaming.” I really like living here although I miss Portugal a lot. That’s normal as we are very far away but I really love being here. We have a saying in Portugal, “Primeiro estranha-se depois entranha-se”, meaning, “First it is strange and later it is entrenched inside of you.” In the beginning you ask, “Where am I? This is China, what is this all around?” but then you feel that Macau is your place, which it is. OG: Why did you decide to become a lawyer? CEC: Well, my mother has a drawing that I did when I was five of a man with a tie and I asked her to write on it, “I am going to be a lawyer when I am 30 and I am going to get married” and indeed I became a lawyer … most likely because of family influence. My father is a lawyer, his brothers – one is a lawyer and the other a public prosecutor. My grandfather was also a public prosecutor so since a very young age I wanted to be a lawyer. I never wanted to be anything else. OG: Does the lawyer life leave you much time for a personal life? CEC: If you ask this question to my wife, the answer will probably be different! It’s not easy. This is very demanding work and most of the time people don’t realize that. We are always working. I don’t leave the office when I go home. When you go on holidays the problems don’t stop. I normally say that a lawyer can never get sick, because he can’t. And to juggle family life with work is not easy, but whenever I am with them, I try to really be with them. OG: If you ever returned to live in Portugal, what immaterial items from Macau would be part of your luggage? CEC: A lot. Professionally I am learning a lot here because, as a young lawyer, you Macau’s Cotai Strip have access to matters and work with certain kind of deals and operations that, if I was in Portugal, I would have to be a partner in a major law firm to have access to. The fact that we work on a daily basis with Hong Kong lawyers, with Singapore lawyers, with international lawyers with a broad experience, this is very important. I would bring this professional experience to Portugal. Also, we are in China, so even though I feel I am European, I have assimilated a lot with the culture, the Chinese culture, the Macanese, this Southeast Asia environment. And I think I would bring a