About

For nearly 20 years, Morela Zubillaga de Paris has advised BNP Paribas on its corporate banking activities in Latin America. A period of rapid growth and subsequent restructuring into pan-Americas reporting lines has seen her take on a new role as director and senior counsel sitting in the legal department with general counsel of the Americas, Peter Cooke. Her work is, says one US-based private practice nominator, a good example of how lawyers are able to drive business in the region, with the source commenting that she has ‘been able to get very interesting deals done that in the past nobody would have thought were possible. She has the type of legal mind that can negotiate outside the four corners of the document and get people confident with novel structures.’ Of her own role, Zubillaga de Paris says she frequently acts as a mediator between New York law documentation and local realities: ‘It is not easy to grasp certain legal concepts and the way of doing business in the region, so regional counsel take on an added significance’, she comments. ‘Often a transaction can look amazing on paper, but when you look more closely you realise it is not enforceable or is not going to work because of various local realities. As in-house lawyer you really must listen to the advice of local counsel to get the structures right. Internal advisers also take on a great importance. We are responsible for understanding what is likely to be acceptable to the organisation itself.’ Originally from Venezuela, Zubillaga de Paris began her career at the New York offices of Shearman & Sterling and, later, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.