Latham Again Named a Leading Business Law Firm of Latin America

Latham & Watkins has been named a leading international business law firm in the 2020 edition of Latin Lawyer 250, an annual guide by Latin Lawyer magazine that recognizes the leading business law firms of Latin America. Latham routinely earns a spot in the guide for its work in the region in M&A, private equity, project finance and infrastructure, capital markets, banking, and arbitration. 

This year’s Latin Lawyer 250 guide summarizes Latham’s Latin America Practice as follows: “Overall, this firm has a practice and a client base with very deep roots in Latin America. Latham & Watkins’ highly regarded practitioners have earnt their reputation through their exceptionally high dedication to their clients.” The guide goes on to state that Latham “led the way on a series of multi-billion dollar transactions of the type it has built its name on in the region and, indeed, globally,” and has “built up a dominant position” in the region by “effectively balancing the benefits that come from global reach with a deep understanding of Latin American legal frameworks and cultures.”  

Latin Lawyer 250 highlights several industry defining deals led by Latham’s Latin America Practice throughout the past year, including advising:

• Toronto-based power producer Northland Power in its US$1.05 billion acquisition of Empresa de Energía de Boyacá, one of the 10 largest electricity distributors in Colombia with more than 120 municipalities under service
• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as guarantor, in a US$400 million offering of social bonds issued by the Republic of Ecuador, the first sovereign in the world to conduct a financing of this kind, to help fund Ecuador’s housing program for medium- and low-income families 
• The Republic of Colombia, in high-profile ICSID arbitrations under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement relating to mining activities in the protected area of the Santurban moorlands
• Mexican energy company IEnova in a US$332 million private placement bond offering made through its subsidiary Tag Norte Holding, the parent entity of the Los Ramones Norte natural gas pipeline and a joint venture between IEnova and Brookfield Infrastructure

The Latin Lawyer 250 guide is compiled by Latin Lawyer’s editorial team and factors in notable deals, key practice strengths, and comments made by corporate counsel regarding the considered firms.