FIRM BRIEFINGS INTERNATIONAL FIRMS Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom


2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions


Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru


Key offices New York, São Paulo, Washington


Most active disciplines Disputes: Financial and corporate Financial and corporate: Banking, Capital markets, M&A, Project finance


Key energy sectors


LNG, Mining and metals, Oil and gas, Renewables, Traditional power


Key infrastructure sectors Airports and aviation, Construction, Healthcare, Water and sewage


Law capability US


Key partners Lance Brasher, Paul Eckles, Harold Moore, Paul Schnell


Skadden’s Latin America practice repeatedly demonstrates outstanding ability in many different legal arenas, from corporate M&A to highly charged litigation. Richard Aldrich Jr and Paul Schnell represented Cosan Indústria e


Comércio in its $1.8 billion purchase of a 60% share in Brazilian piped natural gas distributor Companhia de Gás de São Paulo, from UK- based BG Group. The deal closed on November 5 2012. In December 2012, Alejandro Gonzalez Lazzeri represented Bank


of America Merrill Lynch as lead arranger of a $1.1 billion senior se- cured credit facility for Minera Frisco, a gold and silver mining com- pany controlled by the world’s wealthiest man, Carlos Slim. This deal came just three months after Lazzeri’s representation of Bank of Amer- ica Merrill Lynch and Corporación Financiera Colombiana as co-lead arrangers in a $700 million dual-currency senior credit facility for Pa- cific Rubiales Energy Corporation and affiliates. Clifford Aronson, Paul Eckles and Shepard Goldfein provided coun-


sel to CEMEX and two Florida-based subsidiaries in relation to legal actions taken by buyers of cement products in Florida. The plaintiffs made allegations of price fixing, but the outcome of the litigation proved highly favorable to Skadden’s clients. The court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prevent sufficient evidence for class certification, i.e. for a legal status recognising that common issues and interests of the plaintiffs prevailed over individual concerns.


Squire Sanders


2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions


Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela


Key offices Houston, London, Madrid, Miami, Moscow, New York, Santo Domingo, Washington


Most active disciplines


Disputes: Financial and corporate, Public Financial and corporate: Banking, M&A, Private equity, Project finance Public: Competition, Construction, Environmental, Employment, Land, Projects, Regulatory


Key energy sectors


LNG, Mining and metals, Oil and Gas, Power networks and distribution, Renewables, Traditional power


Key infrastructure sectors Airports and aviation, Healthcare, Ports and shipping


Law capability Brazilian, Dominican Republic, English, Spanish, Venezuelan


Key partners Michele Connell, Paul O’Hop, Alvaro Mestre


Squire Sanders prides itself on having been active in Mexico’s energy market since 1994, when it helped launch a joint venture to carry out Mexico’s first IPP (independent power producer). Since that time, the firm has remained active in ambitious gas pipeline projects in Mexico, putting its bilingual legal teams to good use. At the same time, the firm has demonstrated a strong ability in the arbitrational sphere, as detailed below. Partners Alvaro Mestre, Kevin Levey, Paul O’Hop and Robert White


in Washington and James Morgan in Miami are representing Pemex subsidiary MGI Supply in the development, financing, and running of a 124-mile natural gas pipeline with an expected capacity to pump 2.1 billion cubic feet per day. It will reach from Texas’s Agua Dulce re- gion to a delivery destination in Tamaulipas, Mexico. At the same time, Mestre, Levey, O’Hop, White and Morgan are


providing ongoing counsel to another wholly owned Pemex subsidiary, TAG Pipelines, in relation to the development, financing and operation of a roughly 635-mile natural gas pipeline extending from the above- mentioned Tamaulipas location to a number of delivery points in west- central Mexico. In October 2012, O’Hop and Alejandro Peña-Prieto represented


Marti Petroleum Group in the negotiation of a joint venture for the purchase and running of Chevron’s downstream petroleum business in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Partners Kevin Levey and Stephen Anway in New York and George


von Mehren in Cleveland are providing counsel to the government of Ecuador as it grapples with a roughly $3.2 billion arbitration filed by Occident Petroleum before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.


ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | LATIN AMERICA 2013 21


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