About Gabriel Bulhões
Brazilian criminal defense attorney, PhD candidate in Criminal Sciences (PUC/RS), co-author of CFOAB Provimento 188/2018, and author of the Manual Prático de Investigação Defensiva.
This is a summary page in English — the full site is in Portuguese. Gabriel Bulhões is a Brazilian criminal defense attorney based in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, with a second office in São Paulo, serving clients throughout Brazil. His practice centers on criminal defense, economic criminal law, and defensive investigation — investigative work conducted by the defense itself, under Brazilian Federal Bar (CFOAB) Provimento No. 188/2018, which he helped draft.
He is the author of the Manual Prático de Investigação Defensiva (2nd ed., 2022), the leading Brazilian reference work on the subject, and co-editor, with Prof. Nereu Giacomolli, of DA PROVA: investigação criminal pela defesa (Almedina, Coimbra, 2023). He is currently a PhD candidate in Criminal Sciences at PUC/RS.
Credentials Timeline
- 2016 Specialization in Criminal Sciences — Universidade Cândido Mendes (UCAM/RJ)
- 2016–2018 President of the Criminal Defense Attorneys Commission — OAB/RN (Rio Grande do Norte Bar)
- 2016–2021 State Coordinator of IBCCRIM (Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences) in Rio Grande do Norte
- 2017 Representative of the Defensive Investigation Center — ABRACRIM/RN (ongoing)
- 2018 Specialization in Economic Criminal Law — IBCCRIM, in partnership with the University of Coimbra (Portugal)
- 2018 Co-author of CFOAB Provimento (Federal Bar regulation) No. 188/2018, the first rule to regulate defensive investigation in Brazil
- 2019 3rd place — República Award for Public-Interest Advocacy (Federal Prosecutors Association, ANPR), finalist in the Collective Advocacy category
- 2019 Publication of the Manual Prático de Investigação Defensiva (2nd ed. 2022; forewords by Nereu Giacomolli and Alexandre Morais da Rosa)
- 2022 1st place — Análise DNA+FENALAW Award, Technology category (ETHOSBrasil.org case study)
- 2022 Top 100 Most Digital Attorneys in Brazil — ADVBox
- 2022 Publication of the Code of Ethics for Defensive Investigation — ABRACRIM
- 2023 Most Digital Criminal Law Firm in Brazil — ADVBox
- 2023 Commendation from the Criminal Chamber of the Rio Grande do Norte Court of Justice (TJRN) for the 2nd edition of the Manual Prático de Investigação Defensiva
- 2023 Editor of DA PROVA: investigação criminal pela defesa (Almedina, Coimbra) and Processo Penal Contemporâneo em Debate (Tirant lo Blanch), both with Nereu Giacomolli
- 2024 PhD candidate in Criminal Sciences at PUC/RS, CAPES scholarship, under Prof. Jacinto Nelson de Miranda Coutinho
- 2025–2026 Deputy Regional Coordinator of IBCCRIM in the Federal District (DF) and coordinator of its Advanced Study Groups
- 2026 Co-coordinator of the interstate (DF/SC) IBCCRIM Advanced Study Group on judicial error in defensive investigation
- Present Vice-President of the National Defensive Investigation Commission of the Federal Bar (CFOAB) and President of the National Defensive Investigation and Technological Innovation Commission of ABRACRIM
- Present Lecturer in postgraduate programs across Brazil
Full academic profile
Gabriel Bulhões's academic output — publications, research groups, supervised theses and awards — is documented on Escavador and on his Lattes CV (the Brazilian national academic records platform, in Portuguese). His published books are listed on the Livros page (in Portuguese).