About

‘One of the top international attorneys of Latin American origin’, Peruvian national José Augusto Palma has an ‘impressive legal trajectory’. Dual-qualified (Mexico & Washington DC), he spent a decade in private practice at the Washington DC-based Sidler Berlin, subsequently spending two years as an advisor to Peru’s Minister of the Economy, before being appointed senior counsel and chief of staff to the general counsel of the World Bank. In 2006 he joined Hoschschild Mining (which has operations in Peru, Argentina and Chile), where since 2008, he has been the company’s general counsel and vice president for corporate affairs. Managing a 15-strong team, his remit covers strategy and corporate development, corporate governance and regulatory compliance, capital markets matters and legal defence, as well as environmental issues, licenses and permitting, and community relations programs. Insiders credit him with ‘having very much overseen the growth of the company’ since its 2006 IPO on the London Stock Exchange (the first by a Latin American company in a century). In recent matters he led on a $140m secured credit facility for Minera Suyamarca (in which Hochschild then owned a majority stake) in April 2013; on the company’s $360m-plus deal to buy the Toronto-listed International Minerals Corporation (with which it had previously operated a number of joint ventures including Suyamarca), in December 2013; and on a $350m bond issue for the expansion of its Peruvian and Chilean operations early this year. As one admirer notes: ‘Working with José Augusto is always a collegial experience, in which outside counsel contributes to implementing his ideas, and you feel at all times that he is part of the team. From mining to corporate and from finance to international dispute resolution issues, José is always a senior participant in any legal project. And he is a pleasure to work with.’