Mr Juan Pablo Matus > Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos > Santiago, Chile > Lawyer Profile

Full-service law firm Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos is home to a 20-strong projects team that focuses on energy, telecoms and mining projects. The group is also well known for its expertise in infrastructure and real estate. On the energy side, it is consistently mandated to assist with greenfield projects. It additionally acts for multinational mining companies and industrial clients (that require large volumes of energy) on power purchase agreements. The group is further able to leverage the expertise of the firm’s specialists in planning, development, construction, M&A and financing for infrastructure matters. It provides ongoing advice to Google on the development of data centres in Chile, its assistance including corporate, contractual, real estate, construction, regulatory, environmental, contentious ad tax issues. The group showcases corporate, commercial, mining and environmental law expert, Carlos Pérez-Cotapos; M&A specialists Sergio Díez and Cristián Herrera; Juan Pablo Matus, whose track record includes multiple investment projects; and Gonzalo Grez, who provides both corporate and mining advice. The team also includes regulatory law head Gonzalo Jiménez and Rodrigo Sepúlveda, an adviser on the financing of electricity distribution and generation projects. At associate level, senior Verónica Cuadra advises on project development work, while Daniela Fierro assists with major infrastructure projects.

Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos‘ ‘real estate team has vast experience and excellent knowledge’. The eight-strong department routinely handles major real estate M&A transactions (including due diligence), such as the purchase and sale of shopping malls, office buildings and utilities’ real estate assets. The full-service practice is also mandated to advise on real estate greenfield projects, in relation to industrial plants and large data centres, as well as to assist with the regulatory aspect of urbanisation law and territorial developments. The team is additionally experienced in construction issues (including the contractual closing of projects), in addition to long-term lease agreements. The practice is led by highly-rated partner Juan Pablo Matus, whose enviable real estate projects expertise covers shopping mall, industrial, office and residential developments. Matus also acts for foreign investment funds on the purchase and sale of major real estate assets, and assists retail companies with the negotiation of long-term lease agreements for stores and shopping malls. In the firm’s associate team, Daniela Fierro routinely advises on title reviews, land use and building permits, sale, purchase and lease agreements, and contracts for the construction, engineering and administration of projects; and Daniel Washington and Valentina Pinto also maintain busy real estate practices.

‘Highly prepared to conduct all aspects of a transaction’, Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos‘ sizeable 48-member department is consistently mandated to advise on joint ventures, private equity and venture capital deals, private and public company acquisitions, domestic and cross-border deals, corporate mergers, spin-offs and restructurings (both with and without change of control). Recent mandates for the full-service firm’s corporate and M&A team include matters from the mining, energy, infrastructure, banking and financial services sectors, as well as insurance, media, aquaculture, healthcare, retail, food, water, utilities and agribusiness. The practice houses several deeply experienced practitioners, namely: Sergio Díez, a highly-rated adviser for corporate law, contracts and agreements; longstanding M&A specialist Gerardo Varela; Cristián Herrera, whose workload encompasses foreign investment and securities regulations, in addition to corporate and transactional matters; Juan Pablo Matus, whose track record includes company and asset acquisitions; corporate, natural resources and mining law specialist Carlos Pérez-Cotapos; and mining sector expert Gonzalo Grez. The practice further includes ‘excellent’ corporate and commercial law practitioner Andrea Saffie; corporate and M&A partner Nicolás Lustig, a July 2023 arrival from BHP Minerals Americas, where he was vice-president of legal; and senior partner Francisco J Illanes, who has ‘great legal technical capability’. M&A-focused senior associates María Francisca Salas and Sergio Balharry complete the team. Since publication, Salas has been raised to the partnership – effective as of January 2025.