About

Formerly with PricewaterhouseCoopers in both Bolivia and the United States, Mauricio Davila is the general counsel of Sumitomo Corporation’s Minera San Cristobal. Unsurprisingly, he has ‘an excellent grasp of tax matters’ but is also characterised by admirers as ‘patient and calm’, and as ‘having the finest legal criteria, yet remaining adaptable’. His small team, notably including deputy GC and former Ferrere lawyer, Alvaro del Barco (‘very much Davila’s right hand’), recently obtained a judicial ‘amparo’ with regard to guarantees sought by the national tax authorities in a long running case. As the largest mining operation in the country, MSC necessarily has a considerable number of disputes (primarily commercial – with suppliers, distributors and service providers – or environmental) including ICC arbitrations. An insider with knowledge of one international case comments: ‘he worked indefatigably to assemble and manage a legal team to quietly, yet efficiently help the company resolve its disputes. There are very few corporate counsels in the region so adept at working with foreign lawyers and tackling legal issues of such magnitude and complexity’. Advocates also comment that ‘the breadth and scope of the work he understands is remarkable, from drafting a very complex contract to dealing with the most complex disputes; all this without having Japan sitting on his shoulder. The company has learned to receive his management of all these issues as “the best strategy to follow”, a truly remarkable achievement in such a sizeable corporation’ As Norton Rose Fulbright’s Anibal Sabater notes: ‘the most knowledgeable and sophisticated GC in a local company I’ve worked with’.