Joana brings nearly two decades of experience in corporate investigations and is widely recognised as a leading expert in asset recovery. She leads Raedas’s Latin America and Sovereign Disputes practices.
Her work spans high-value, cross-border matters involving corporations, sovereigns, multilateral institutions, and high-net-worth individuals. Joana collaborates closely with clients and their legal teams, as well as third-party funders, PR professionals, and government affairs advisors—offering a strategic, multi-stakeholder approach to complex disputes. Her deep understanding of both common and civil law systems—and the dynamics between them—enables faster, more informed analysis and decision-making throughout a matter’s lifecycle.
Known for combining creativity with factual precision, Joana delivers targeted enforcement analysis and identifies pressure points to shape effective recovery strategies. She is particularly experienced in sovereign enforcement, with an experienced understanding of the mechanics, structure and use of state-owned assets, as well as evidence gathering requirements in support of alter ego / sovereign immunity assessments as well as commercial purpose and use of assets.
In addition to her asset recovery experience, Joana maintains a broader practice developing investigative and evidence-gathering strategies in contentious scenarios, including fraud and corruption investigations, intellectual property disputes, sanctions-related actions, and other sensitive or high-stakes matters—whether in litigation, arbitration, pre-contentious settings, or settlement negotiations.
She has authored expert reports, submitted declarations, and provided testimony in support of Raedas’s investigations before courts in England & Wales, the United States, Brazil, France, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and others, as well as before numerous domestic and international arbitration tribunals.
She acts for both claimants and defendants.
Joana is ranked Band 1 by Chambers in both Business Intelligence & Investigations and Asset Tracing & Recovery, and is recognised as a leading expert by Who’s Who Legal. Clients describe her as “fiercely bright and creative in her thought processes,” “thorough and meticulous,” and “very responsive, incisive and brings to group conversations a view that challenges things”.
Outside her casework, Joana co-leads Women in Disputes, Raedas’s award-nominated initiative promoting (female) empowerment in the investigations and disputes space. She is a frequent speaker on the topic and an active mentor to emerging professionals. She is the proud mother of two young boys.
A native Portuguese speaker, Joana is fluent in English, French, and Spanish, and also speaks German. She has lived in Lisbon, Paris, Brussels, and London.
Before co-founding Raedas in 2016, Joana was a partner at GPW and previously worked at Diligence in Brussels and London. She began her career in development cooperation at the OECD and the United Nations.