Pietrantoni Mendez & Alvarez LLC

Managing Partner: Jaime E Santos
Partners: Manuel R Pietrantoni, Antonio J Santos, Jorge I Peirats, Donald E Hull, Eduardo J Arias, Edgar Ríos, Oreste R Ramos, Herman G Colberg, Edwin R Cruz, Antonio R Molina, Iván G Marrero, Manuel Rodríguez, Manuel E del Valle, María D Trelles, Karina Camacho, Diego Murgia, Dianette Rivera
Number of partners: 18
Number of other lawyers: 38

Firm Overview:
Founded in 1992, Pietrantoni Méndez & Alvarez LLC represents a wide cross-section of private companies, public entities, family offices, individuals and foundations engaged in areas such as financial services, capital market transactions, health services, telecommunications, insurance, energy, oil and petrochemical products, real estate, hospitality, retail and wholesale trade, intellectual property, construction, education, government and manufacturing.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Financial Services:
Representing financial institutions, including commercial banks and international financial entities, among others, in a wide range of regulatory and transactional matters, including acquisitions and chartering, and working with Puerto Rico and federal banking regulators.

Commercial Lending:
Representing borrowers and international and local financial institutions in large and complex financings, including construction loans, leveraged buy-outs, syndicated loans and multi-borrower facilities.

Corporate & Commercial:
Advising clients on corporate and commercial law matters, including governance, and structuring transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, and management buy-outs.

Energy:
Representing clients involved in the development of alternative and renewable energy projects in Puerto Rico.

eDiscovery:
Counseling clients on matters involving preservation, processing and production of electronically stored information.

Environmental:
Counseling clients on compliance, regulatory and permitting matters under Puerto Rico and federal environmental laws, and environmental issues arising in real estate developments, manufacturing, service and food retail operations, and commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, real estate transfers, and financing transactions.

Export Services & Individual Investors Act:
Advising clients on the tax exemption benefits under Puerto Rico Acts 20 (Export Services) and 22 (Individual Investors Act).

Government Investigations:
Assisting clients in dealing with a wide-range of investigations, accreditation and enforcement proceedings by government and regulatory entities, including the SEC, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institution, grand jury investigations, antitrust investigations by Department of Justice and accreditation proceedings before the Joint Commission. The firm also counsels companies in conducting internal investigations and developing and maintaining compliance programs.

Insurance & Health:
Advising clients in dealing with corporate, claims dispute and regulatory matters faced by insurers, hospitals, HMOs and providers in Puerto Rico, including acquisitions of insurers or insurance portfolios.

Intellectual Property:
Counseling clients on a wide variety of local and federal copyright, patent, and trademark law matters.

Investment Companies:
Advising various mutual fund families and private equity funds in connection with Puerto Rico and federal requirements.

Labour & Employment:
Representing employers in all aspects of the labour and employment relationship.

Litigation & Arbitration:
Representing its clients in all areas of civil and commercial litigation and arbitration before all trial and appellate levels of state and federal courts. The firm’s litigation practice covers virtually every business-related issue encountered by its clients.

Mergers & Acquisitions:
Representing local and foreign clients in connection with the acquisition and disposition of businesses in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Privatisations:
Participated in almost every major privatisation and public private partnership project carried out in Puerto Rico, including the sale of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company, the development of the Port of the Americas, the development of the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge, the public private partnership of the San Juan International Airport and State Roads 5 and 22, and the operation and maintenance agreements for the electric transmission and distribution system and the island ferries system.

Public Finance & Government Restructuring:
Participated in most of the largest and more complex bond issues involving the Government of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities, acting as bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel, disclosure counsel or trustee’s counsel in connection with the issuance of bonds by Puerto Rico governmental entities. Also, advised government entities in restructuring and insolvency proceedings, including the largest restructuring in the United States municipal market.

Real Estate:
The firm’s real estate practice includes the full range of issues faced in connection with developing and financing real estate projects in Puerto Rico, including, residential projects, office buildings, commercial shopping centers, hotels, mixed-use facilities, and industrial projects.

Securities:
Advising major US and Puerto Rico investment banking firms, securities broker-dealers, investment and private fund advisers, corporations and others, in all aspects of capital markets transactions, including the issuance, sale and trading of securities.

Taxation:
Providing advice to its clients in all areas of taxation, including Puerto Rico and US Federal income taxation, sales, property and municipal taxation, tax exemption and tax credits.

Languages:
English, French, Spanish.

Clients:
AT&T, Acrecent Financial Corporation, Banco Popular, Banco Santander, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Best Buy, Blue Ocean International Bank, Coca-Cola PR Bottlers, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Ecoeléctrica, Firstbank, Grupo Triple S, Hewlett Packard, HIMA San Pablo, Home Depot, Humana, JP Morgan Chase, Major League Baseball, MAPFRE, Oriental Bank, Oriental Financial Services, Parliament Capital Management, Paulson & Co., Popular Securities, Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority, Puerto Rico Public Private Partnerships Authority, Santander Securities, SAP, SBA, Sonnedix, Total Petroleum, Toyota, Wyndham.