Latin America Forum

[Anonymous User]

Rising 2L looking to create a bid list. I'm originally from Latin America and would like to have the opportunity to work with Latin America in the future.

I was wondering if anyone could point me to big law firms that have a particularly strong Latin America practice?

I'm open to location, but I would like to live somewhere in the Northeast with my family.

[RedGiant]

Davis Polk has a good LatinAm cap mkts group. That's all I got.

[deadpanic]

DLA Piper has several offices in Latin America, but can't speak to their reputation/practice areas.

[Anonymous User]

^^ Thanks!

I've heard that as well. Anyone have any idea about firms like Baker McKenzie, Latham or Simpson? or other recs?

[Anonymous User]

Cleary has what is generally regarded as the best domestic Latin America practice. If you join them, you will get to be a generalist and do a variety of credit, M&A, and cap mkts. work. They are always looking for native Spanish speakers.
Other excellent lat am practices include:
Davis Polk, Simpson Thacher, Paul Hastings, White & Case and Milbank.
One way to get yourself hired very easily is to become proficient in Portuguese. This will make you doubly attractive to these firms since that is a much rarer skill set than Spanish/English. It doesn't have to be perfect but it will be a huge boost on the job mkt.

[lawposeidon]

I'm not an expert in biglaw but I had a friend who raved about Cleary's Latin American offices.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks guys! Going into OCI, is there anyway to make sure that I get slotted into that? or alternatively in mass mailing?

[Anonymous User]

Not a Spanish speaker and not a native Portuguese speaker, but my Portuguese is conversational/proficient. I always assumed anything below fluency (if not outright native) would be irrelevant. Is it really that valuable? Maybe I should try to bolster it up.

[Anonymous User]

Freshfields NY has a dedicated and busy Latin America arbitration practice, if that is something that interests you

[juice122]

Thanks guys! Going into OCI, is there anyway to make sure that I get slotted into that? or alternatively in mass mailing?

[Anonymous User]

Procopio, a regional firm based in San Diego, is the preeminent law firm for Latin American work. Look them up and contact someone there.

[Anonymous User]

Wondering if these firms would be hiring 3Ls as well?

[Anonymous User]

If you are a 2L or 3L who speaks Spanish or Portuguese, I would strongly encourage you to apply to firms highlighting those skills. I am a non-native speaker of both (but lived for quite a few years in Latin America, to give you a general sense of my language level), and most of my practice has evolved to Latin America-based matters because firms desperately need people with language proficiency. As a caveat, this can be a good or bad thing— if you know for certain that you want a Latin America practice, it’s great, but you can also end up pigeonholed as a Latin America person when that was not your intention, so just make sure you know what you want before flagging those skills.

In addition to the practice areas mentioned by previous posters, there is a fair amount of white collar and FCPA work involving Latin America, so that might be another practice to consider. Check out Chambers for firms that are strong in that area. With all of the political chaos in Brazil over the past few years, most big firms have matters requiring Portuguese speakers.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the response, I'll keep that in mind for OCI.

Any other firms? Also is the strength of these practices dictated by Chambers or vault?

[Anonymous User]

Chambers. Look at Gibson Dunn, too.

[Anonymous User]

If you're interested in international arb (which as, as mentioned by others, seems to have a high demand for fluent Spanish speakers right now) I would also recommend checking out Global Arbitration Review (GAR) - I don't know how much weight it should be given for direct comparison between firms, but it will lay out a good background for firms that have strong arbitration groups and also potentially highlight firms doing a lot of work in Latin America right now. It has a paywall but your law school might have free access.

In terms of getting slotted into a practice group like this, I know where I summered (a firm already mentioned) if you could show fluency in Spanish and were interested in the work they would 100% place you in the group. They needed Spanish speakers and the group seemed to be very busy. As others have said, definitely something to bring up at OCI (after confirming that the firm does this type of work if its not a firm that's already been mentioned.)

Finally, other firms that may worth taking a look at:

White & Case - I haven't heard the best things about being an associate there generally (though that's based basically off TLS comments so... whatever) but they have a strong international arbitration group that I believe does a lot of Latin American work. Probably at least worth checking if there's an alum in the group you can contact for more info.

King & Spalding - I believe their arb group does a fair amount of work in Latin America and I've heard good things anecdotally about the practice group.