Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Firm Details: 

Firm Chair: Jami McKeon

Latin America Team Co-leaders: Thomas C. Mellor and John Crespo

Branch Offices: Morgan Lewis also has offices in Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Beijing*, Boston, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hartford, Hong Kong*, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Nur-Sultan, Orange County, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Princeton, San Francisco, Shanghai*, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo, Washington, D.C. and Wilmington.

*The Beijing and Shanghai offices operate as representative offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. In Hong Kong, Morgan Lewis operates through Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which is a separate Hong Kong general partnership registered with The Law Society of Hong Kong as a registered foreign law firm operating in Association with Luk & Partners.

Firm Overview: 

From *30 offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labour and employment, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes across all major industries. The firm’s regulatory and industry focused practices help clients address legal, government, and public policy challenges. Founded in 1873, Morgan Lewis comprises more than 2,000 legal professionals: lawyers, patent agents, employee benefits advisers, regulatory scientists, and other specialists.

Main Areas of Practice: 

In Latin America, the firm’s footprint touches almost every country in the region. The Latin America team works from offices in Houston, Miami, New York and Washington, DC, and includes lawyers who are licensed to practice in Latin American jurisdictions who are fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. They also have long-standing collaborative relationships with local legal counsel and key business partners throughout the region.

Corporate & Business Transactions: 

The Latin America team handles million- to multibillion- dollar transactions for its global clientele– sellers, buyers and investors; investment and commercial banks; private equity and venture capital funds and institutional lenders; and independent director committees and management groups–in virtually every regulated and un-regulated industry. Its focus includes mergers and acquisitions (including joint ventures, spin-offs, and strategic alliances), private equity, securities, corporate governance, emerging business and technology, energy transactions, real estate and subsidiary matters.

Finance & Restructuring: 

The firm is best known for representing banks and other lenders in lending transactions and representing creditors in financial restructuring transactions. Its lending practice is well informed by the lessons learned from the financial restructuring practice. For years, Morgan Lewis has represented lenders to some of the most important corporate borrowers in Latin America and has routinely worked on the highest-profile debt restructurings in the region. The team is active throughout Latin America, and is particularly visible in Brazil and increasingly in Mexico.

Energy: 

Morgan Lewis has long been actively engaged throughout Latin America, developing projects, pursuing M&A deals, and arranging financings in every sector of the energy industry. The firm’s oil and gas experience includes the development and financing of pipelines, LNG terminals, processing plants, and petrochemical facilities; onshore and offshore field development, including platform and FPSO construction and installation; joint ventures and unitisation projects; and acquisitions and dispositions of all of these projects. In the renewables sector, the firm has advised on the development and financing of wind energy and biofuels projects. In the conventional power sector, the firm’s work has included the development, financing, purchase and sale of electric power generation facilities, and acquisitions, dispositions, and privatisations of electric utilities. Morgan Lewis has also advised and commented on proposed legislation and regulations on behalf of its clients.

Telecommunications, Media & Technology: 

The firm serves as a key resource for communications and technology clients by managing their regulatory, transactional and tax needs throughout Latin America. Clients include established and emerging telecommunications carriers; VoIP and internet application providers; wireless and satellite companies; cable operators; competitive video service providers; broadcasters and media companies; equipment manufacturers; large users of communications services; systems integrators; investment banks, venture funds and hedge fund managers.

International Tax: 

Morgan Lewis tax lawyers regularly advise on a variety of issues, including the management of crossborder work across Latin America. Working together as a team and with the firm’s other practices, the tax team offers a seamlessly integrated response to clients’ business needs and strategic insight into the issues they face.

Intellectual Property: 

The firm’s intellectual property (IP) experience in Latin America ranges from developing and implementing strategies for multi-jurisdictional clearance, prosecution and enforcement of global brands to handling the IP aspects of cross-border transactions and licensing arrangements.

Labour, Employment & Benefits:  

The internationally recognised labour and employment team provides strategic counseling and planning for companies operating or starting up operations in Latin America. Representations include the handling of labour, employment and immigration due diligence issues during corporate transactions, restructuring, and divestitures; termination of employment contracts as well as large-scale reductions in force; and advising on global mobility issues.

Litigation, International Arbitration & Investigations: 

Morgan Lewis lawyers have represented clients in international arbitration and dispute resolution matters as well as in anti-corruption and internal investigations throughout the region. In the corporate investigations area, the firm has handled FCPA/ anti-bribery investigations in almost every Latin American country.

Languages: 

Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish.