Brigard & Urrutia Abogados - The Who's Who Legal 100 2012

What is the Who's Who Legal 100?

Banking and finance is one of the firm’s strong suits. Lawyers at Brigard & Urrutia Abogados represent national and international financial institutions on syndications, project finance, local and international financial structures as well as regulatory issues. A partner at the firm since 1981, Carlos Urrutia is one of its most prominent names and is lauded for the strength of his banking practice. He is highly regarded for his work in international financial transactions and recently represented Credit Suisse in connection with a guaranteed $220 million loan to Tuscany. Listed under a further five practice areas including aviation, capital markets, public procurement and oil and gas, he is renowned for the breadth of his expertise. He is joined in the aviation chapter by the “top-tier” Álvaro Cala: a partner at the firm since 2006, who advises leading domestic and foreign companies with regard to aviation regulation.

Another of the firm’s leading lights is Sergio Michelsen. With over 20 years of experience he is hailed as an M&A specialist, and advised SABMiller in the acquisition of Bavaria SA for $7.8 billion. He has also played a significant role in many of the most important recent M&A transactions in Colombia, including acting for Álmacenes Éxito, the largest retail company in Colombia, in its $700 million acquisition of controlling stake in Carulla-Vivero. A “market leader”, Michelsen displays the extent of his expertise with listings in a further five practice areas, including corporate governance, regulatory communications and labour and employment. Together with Urrutia, he also appears in the banking and project finance chapters. Carlos Fradique-Méndez is the third of the firm’s project finance specialists that we feature. He complements this listing with an entry in the real estate chapter.

Luis Gabriel Pérez has is a respected name for his mining and oil and gas practice. With over 19 years of experience, he has been involved in numerous extraction sector projects in the fields of both hydrocarbons and mining.

Further recognition in litigation and tax prove the firm’s strength across the board. With a host of first-class lawyers highlighted in a range of practice areas, Brigard & Urrutia Abogados earns a place among the elite law firms in this publication.