Ms Denise Grant > Shearman & Sterling LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Shearman & Sterling LLP
599 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10022-6069
NEW YORK
United States

Work Department

Project Development & Finance

Position

Partner

Career

Denise has over 25 years of experience advising lenders and borrowers on the most complex corporate, acquisition and project related financings across the Americas. The breadth of Denise’s practice is expansive both geographically and across sectors. She covers all major markets in Latin America with a strong foothold in Chile, Mexico and Peru and spans key sectors, including banking, energy, mining, consumer products, investments and retail.

Her client base is equally diverse with a mix of corporates and state-owned borrowers and lenders to such borrowers, including Peruvian mining company, Volcan, Peru’s largest consumer goods company, Alicorp, and Chilean power company, Transelec, as well as state-owned oil and gas company ENAP, and the lenders to Petrobras, Pemex and The Bahamas. Denise’s practice is complemented by a longstanding roster of international commercial bank clients, including Credit Agricole, Bank of America, Citibank, Scotiabank, and BBVA among others. In the US, Denise serves as the go to borrower’s counsel for multinationals such as The Olayan Group, American Axle and Paramount Global in their multi-billion financings related to corporate matters and strategic acquisitions in the respective sectors.

A longstanding champion of diversity, equity and inclusion, Denise is a founder of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. With her leadership, the initiative has become part of the DNA of the firm, which has been recognized as “Top Firm for Diversity” by The American Lawyer and one of the “Best Law Firms for Minority Attorneys and for Minority Equity Partners” by Law360.

Lawyer Rankings

Latin America: International firms > Banking and finance

(Leading individuals)

Denise GrantA&O Shearman

The fruit of a merger betweeen two global heavyweights, A&O Shearman fields an impressive Latin America-focused finance practice that has presence and profile in the acquisition finance, export finance, structured finance, corporate lending, and restructurings and refinancing segments. The group represents a healthy array of financial institutions (including Barclays, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and Banamex),  along with various DFIs and ECAs, as well as institutional investors, corporates and private equity funds. The team further demonstrates particular experience in corporate lending and is making a further impression in growth areas such as sustainability-linked finance and ESG-related loans. Senior partner Denise Grant  has deep bank finance, and project finance and development experience, and an enviable trajectory in Latin America financings throughout the region. Metals and mining specialist Cynthia Urda Kassis is also active in project and development finance across the region; while co-head of the Americas projects, energy, natural resources & infrastructure group, Dorina Yessios is noted for energy and infrastructure financings. New York-based Sami Mir is co-head of the US agency practice and is pivotal to the firm’s connections to ECAs, MLAs, DFIs and commercial lenders; while Todd Koretzky (banking, leveraged finance, corporate finance and private credit) is highlighted for acquisition financings in the region. Promoted to the partnership in 2022, dual-qualified (New York/Peru) Augusto Ruiloba is another key member of the team and is particularly noted for acquisition financings in the energy, mining and infrastructure sectors, particularly in Mexico, Chile and Peru. Now based in Washington DC, dual-qualified (New York/Brazil) counsel André de Paiva Teixeira focuses on project and leveraged financing as part of his broader corporate transactional practice. Named individuals are based in New York unless stated otherwise. Since publication, Sao Paulo-based Bruno Soares and New York’s Joseph Stefano have both left the firm – in February and April 2024 respectively