Latin America & Iberia

Our team of over 300 litigators conducts cases in more than 70 countries., We have the largest dedicated group of international injunction specialists in the country. Our team has conducted arbitrations under virtually all of the major international arbitration rules. As one of the leading London teams of high-level strategists and robust counsel, our Latin American focused experience includes: 

• Advising global corporates including BMW, Microsoft, Pfizer, Hewlett Packard, Prada and Christian Louboutin on IP protection, enforcement and commercialisation. 
• Acting for a leading US financial institution in relation to a Serious Fraud Office investigation across Europe in respect of an alleged investment fraud in the region of US$350m. 
• Representing claimants on fraud, asset tracing and recovery. 
• Advising the world’s largest executive search organisation on its international franchising arrangements in the Middle East, South America (Brazil and Mexico) Poland, the UK and Portugal. 
• Acting for Brazil's largest footwear manufacturer, on IP protection issues. 

For high net worth (HNW) individuals and family offices, we act as personal advisors, dealing with carefully selected overseas professionals on behalf of our clients. Our experience ranges from immigration, tax and wealth management, immigration, residential property, and art law, to reputation protection, family law, families in business, and trust and succession disputes and planning. As experts in preserving, growing and transferring wealth, our Latin American related experience includes: 

• Advising a billionaire Venezuelan entrepreneur on his relocation to London, to include ensuring that he undertakes pre-arrival tax planning in advance of his move so that his affairs were arranged as efficiently as possible. 
• Advising a Brazilian real estate holding company, with interests in shopping malls, airports, hotels and other real estate projects, on expanding its business operations into a new European (including London) market. 
• Advising an ultra-high net worth Isle of Man based entrepreneur and his family office on restructuring his global assets to include a vast real estate holding in Portugal. 
• Advising a former member of the Mexican government on their relocation from London to Spain to include the personal tax issues that apply prior to, on and after their departure. We also worked closely with Spanish counsel on their Spanish pre-arrival planning and the application of the Beckham Law special tax regime which applies to foreigners who move to Spain. 
• Advising a successful Venezuelan musician and businessman on tax, asset holding vehicles and succession planning in the context of the acquisition of a £30m country estate in England. This involved co-ordinating advice from our residential real estate, rural estates, real estate tax, employment, banking and planning teams.
• Advising Brazilian HNW clients on UK investor visas and other economic citizenship programmes. 
• Advising Brazilian HNW individuals on several tax issues in relation to inheritance, the purchase of prime London property and the creation of a trust for the family. 
• Restructuring the assets of a HNW individual following his move to the UK. 

For business owners, wealth owners and dealmakers, our teams manage cross-border transactions as an extension of a client’s internal management team - even when there is little or no UK angle. Our experience covers M&A, joint ventures, corporate restructuring and private equity. We have a unique perspective on the growing importance of private capital within the mid-market. We have experience acting for Latin American businesses including: 

• New World Carbon on biofuels scheme in Brazil and related products. 
• United Phosphorus Limited on its expansion into developing markets, with two joint ventures in Brazil. 
• All shareholders of Schneider Foreign Exchange Limited on the US$100m disposal to (Mexican) Monex Group. 

We are connected to more property deals and players than any other firm in London. We advise a number of the leading entrepreneurs in the property industry alongside an equally entrepreneurially minded blue chip client base. Stemming from Latin America, this includes: 

• Acting for Brazil's largest footwear manufacturer, on setting up its European flagship store in London. 
• The joint venture of Delancey and Qatari Diar on the real estate aspects of their £557m purchase and long-term management of the Olympic Village after the 2012 Games. 

We have one of the largest dedicated employment teams in London, advising both organisations and senior executives in complex, high profile, high stakes situations. Our track record of acting at the highest level for both organisations, from start-ups to large multi-national PLCs, and senior executives alike puts us in a strong position when it comes to advising clients. In fact, with each new case we add to our deep understanding of tactics deployed by both sides. Understanding an issue from your opponent’s point of view, knowing where they stand and how they are thinking, is a priceless asset for every one of our new clients.

Our work covers the full spectrum of contentious and non-contentious employment law and we work seamlessly with our dedicated incentives and business immigration teams. Acting at the forefront of employment law, we are regularly instructed on cases that raise the most important legal questions of the day, and we are recognised for our strategic approach and litigation expertise.

Our Iberian and Latin American experience includes:

• Advising a high-profile Spanish football agent on an employment dispute with a UK agency.
• Advising a Peruvian CEO on his relocation to the UK, including the negotiation of his contractual arrangements with a UK financial services business, and tax advice.
• Advising a senior partner in the Spanish office of a global law firm headquartered in the UK on his exit to set up his own Spanish practice.
• Acting for an employer in a multi-jurisdiction team move which included considerations of Uruguayan and Mexican unfair competition and post-termination restrictive covenant laws.