Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

A genuinely global player in international arbitration, Herbert Smith Freehills' Latin America group is spread across multiple offices - including Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo - but is primarily led from New York, London, Madrid and Paris. Some 20-lawyers' strong, the practice houses an array of specialists with a sharp focus on the region, many of whom are bilingual and/or native Spanish/Portuguese speakers, and either dual-qualified or licensed to practice in Latin American jurisdictions. With impressive capabilities in both common and civil law, the practice also demonstrates a balance between investment and commercial arbitration, and represents big-name multinationals along with a group of sovereign states. Its headline cases include public international law matters and investment treaty arbitration, with energy and infrastructure being core areas of expertise for the team, along with telecoms and financial services. Heading up the Latin America Group, the deeply experienced Christian Leathley (‘brilliant advocacy and technical legal acumen’) is very much the motor of the arbitral practice and leads the team on the majority of its Latin America disputes' mandates; he relocated to the London office -from New York- in August 2023, but remains US head of international arbitration. Paris-based Thierry Tomasi (’an excellent lawyer, certainly one of the best within the firm’) brings senior level Portuguese capabilities to the group; he has a fine record in Brazil-related cases. Further senior fire-power is provided by multilingual, Paris and California-qualified Amal Bouchenaki in the New York office, which also houses the bulk of the Latin America-focused associate team - namely seniors Benjamin Guthrie and (Ecuadorian-qualified) Daniela Páez-Salgado, along with Argentina-qualified Lucila Marchini and Chilean-qualified Carlos Hafemann who arrived as a visiting attorney in August 2022.