José María Alonso is a counsel at Latham & Watkins. He leads the Environment, Land & Resources Practice in the Madrid office and advises clients on regulatory aspects of complex corporate transactions.
As a former Spanish State Attorney, José María Alonso has extensive experience advising on Spanish public law matters and EU regulation, particularly in the financial, energy, and infrastructure industries. Moreover, his experience at the Ministry of the Presidency and Public Administration and his work as Technical General Secretary of Spain´s Ministry of Economy and Business gives him a deep knowledge of the European market from a financial and economic perspective.
Mr. Alonso´s experience includes:
- Advising Platinum Equity in the acquisition of Urbaser, one of the world’s largest providers of environmental services, from China Tianying Inc. for an enterprise value of approximately US$4.2 billion
- Advising Sener and Masdar in the sale of Torresol Energy Investments, a company engaged in the thermosolar energy industry, to Q-Energy
- Advising X-Elio Energy, a Spain-based provider of renewable energy services, in the sale of its portfolio of solar assets to China Three Gorges
- Advising Cerner Corporation in the sale of its IT Healthcare portfolio in Spain and Germany to CompuGroup Medical for €225 million
- Drafting numerous legislative projects related to the banking sector, capital markets, insurance, and telecoms*
- Coordinating several preliminary ruling proceedings, and judicial proceedings with the European Union*
- Advising the Spanish Public Administration in relation to bank resolution, and foreign investments*
- Handling and resolving appeals against decisions of the Ministry of Economy and Business, the Bank of Spain, the CNMV (Spanish securities market supervisor), the CNMC (Spanish competition authority), and the ICAC (Spanish accounting association)*
- Participating in the defense of the Kingdom of Spain in several international arbitration proceedings related to the renewable energy legislation*
- Preparing reports for the Administrative Board of Public Contract Appeals*
- Representing and defending the Spanish Administration before the Superior Courts of Justice of Madrid and Cantabria, particularly in the field of energy, public property, infrastructures, and sanctioning procedures*
- Acting as Secretary to the Board or Member of the Board of various state-owned companies*
- Coordinating the legal advice agreement with the Administrator of Railway Infrastructure*
- Representing and defending the Administration in several criminal proceedings related to white collar crime*
*Matter handled prior to joining Latham