Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is ‘a proven firm for significant transnational cases’. It has an extensive client list of corporates from across the region, such as Vale and FEMSA, along with a growing number of Japanese trading houses, Middle East-based sovereign wealth funds and significant pension funds. The firm also frequently advises other global corporate clients on their investments and acquisitions in the Latin America region. It has an outstanding record in the Mexico and Brazil markets, while also achieving a significant presence in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina. The natural resources sector is its most active industry, along with power, renewables, oil and gas, infrastructure and consumer products. Jeffrey Lewis has an outstanding reputation in natural resources and oil-and-gas transactions in Latin America. Chantal Kordula is another leading name with an excellent record in consumer products, energy, manufacturing and infrastructure deals across Mexico and multiple Latin American jurisdictions' while Sao Paulo-based Juan Giráldez plays an anchor role on many of the firm’s Brazil and Southern Cone deal mandates. Native Spanish speaker Maria Manzur is a key name at associate level.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Mentions
Profile
Position
Juan is a partner at Cleary Gottlieb, where he holds various leadership roles. Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English, his practice focuses on international business and financing transactions, particularly mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, cross-border financings and capital markets. Juan is widely regarded in Brazil and throughout Latin America as a top lawyer and has been frequently lauded by leading industry publications. His advises some of the largest companies in Latin America which rely on him for their most important and complex transactions. With deep experience across various industries, his clients include corporates, banks and investment funds with operations in the region, as well as sovereign governments and their instrumentalities in connection with complex financing transactions, among others.
Career
Joined firm, 1998; became Partner, 2007. Columbia University School of Law (LLM, James Kent Scholar) 1998; Université de Paris II - Panthéon-Assas (D.E.A., International Economic Law; D.S.U., Commercial Law and European Law) 1996 and 1995; Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (Degree in Law, magna cum laude) 1994.
Memberships
Member of the Bar in New York.
Education
Columbia Law School, LL.M.
Université de Paris II - Panthéon-Assas, D.E.A. and D.S.U.
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Degree in Law
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Excellent lawyers with global prestige. A proven firm for significant transnational cases. Extensive experience in financing and M&A transactions, with in-depth knowledge of the Latin American and Chilean markets. They know how to identify clients' needs and work closely with them.’
‘Compared to other US firms, the partners' availability to resolve their clients' problems and concerns is striking. The associate attorneys have extensive experience and knowledge of the issues they are required to address.’
Key clients
- Antofagasta
- CAP
Work highlights
Advised Suzano on its $110m acquisition of Pactiv’s paper mill in Pine Bluff (Arkansas), and extrusion facility in Waynesville (North Carolina).