Most Highly Regarded Firms: Argentina 2008 - Business Crime Defence
In this chapter we identify those practitioners who are highly regarded for their expertise in defending companies, corporate officers and individuals in criminal litigation arising from business activities.
They will also advise companies that are the victims of white-collar crime. A select group of six practitioners from five firms appears in this chapter.
Estudio Durrieu Abogados SC is the largest and the best-known white-collar crime boutique in the country. In 2007 the firm joined Fraudnet, a network of lawyers specialising in combating fraud and commercial crime. This builds upon its existing strategic alliances with the forensic department of KPMG and its membership of The Ibero-American Network of Specialists in Economic Crime Law. The firm provides two lawyers for this chapter, father and son team Roberto Durrieu and Roberto Durrieu Jr. The father is senior partner and "very, very famous in Argentina and extremely well regarded". He is a former president of the Buenos Aires Bar Association and has been selected to represent Argentina as Official Defence Counsel before the International Criminal Court. The business crime practice of Durrieu Jr, a founding partner of Fraudnet, is highly recommended by his peers. He is a frequent writer and speaker in the area and his book Lavado de Dinero en la Argentina (Money Laundering in Argentina) received the Inter-American Bar Association "2007 Best Legal Book" award.
Diego Ignacio Richards from Fernández Alonso Beccar Varela & Richards Abogados is another "very impressive" individual who received a great deal of praise from his peers. Richards has 25 years of government service under his belt, having served in positions that include associate to the criminal secretariat of the National Supreme Court of Justice and clerk of the National Supreme Court of Justice in the secretariat created for the investigation of the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992. Fernández Alonso Beccar Varela & Richards Abogados was formed in 2005 and is quickly establishing itself as a firm with a prominent and well respected white-collar crime practice.
Fontán Balestra & Asociados has for over a century concentrated on criminal law and Juan María del Sel is a "strong player" in the white-collar arena. Del Sel is an associate professor at Buenos University School of Law, teaching Criminal Law. Equally well regarded is Sebastián Sal from Sal & Morchio - Abogados. White-collar crime is a key practice area for the firm and Sal is a partner in the business and criminal law departments and a former judicial officer (serving at the federal court with jurisdiction in criminal and financial matters). He is also on the advisory board of Police Practice & Research - an international journal published by Routledge. Horacio Romero Villanueva moved from BSRV to Gonzalez Correas (h) & Romero Villanueva and is a highly regarded and "very impressive" practitioner, according to our sources. Villanueva is a keen writer and speaker.