Led by Randy Bullard, the Team's Practice Also Further Enhances the Firm's Newly Announced Latin America Desk, Which Includes Corporate, Litigation, Compliance, and Finance Capabilities
NEW YORK (June 19, 2019) – Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce the addition of a highly-regarded team of nine corporate lawyers, including four partners: Randy Bullard, Alexandra Aguirre, Enrique Conde, and Juan Delgado. The team, which primarily represents multinational companies in cross-border M&A transactions, joint ventures, and financial transactions, joins Morrison & Foerster's Corporate Group. While this team will be part of the firm's New York office, given their client demands, they will also continue to work out of the Miami area and throughout Latin America.
The team's substantial experience advising on inbound and outbound investments for Latin American clients, and their presence in Miami, makes them a key addition to Morrison & Foerster's multi-practice Latin America Desk, which the firm is also announcing today. Led by Ruti Smithline and now also Mr. Bullard, Morrison & Foerster's Latin America Desk includes lawyers from a broad range of practices who do significant work in the region and understand the relevant business, economic, cultural, and legal environments.
"I am excited to welcome this talented team to MoFo. They reinforce our already deep transactional experience and cross-border deal capabilities," said Eric McCrath, co-chair of the firm's Corporate Department. "The team also enhances our offerings in Latin America. Among other things, they further strengthen our ability to advise the many Asian companies that are currently making significant investments in multiple countries across Latin America."
"I look forward to working closely with Randy and the team to ensure that our Latin America Desk continues to meet the needs of our broad range of clients throughout Latin America," said Ms. Smithline, co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's Latin America Desk and also co-chair of the firm's Investigations & White Collar Defense Group. "We are committed to responding to our clients' growing demand for attorneys that can support them on matters in the region. Our new M&A team complements our deep bench of attorneys across multiple practices and offices in the U.S., Asia, and Europe who are native or fluent speakers of Spanish and Portuguese, and who are familiar with the local laws and culture throughout Latin America."
Addition of a Nine Person Corporate Team
The powerhouse team of four partners and five associates that has joined Morrison & Foerster advises clients on complex transactional matters across multiple regions, with a particular focus on Latin America. They represent companies in a broad range of industries, including in the financial services, telecommunications, media, entertainment, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors. The bi-lingual and bi-cultural team is led by Randy Bullard who brings more than 20 years of experience to Morrison & Foerster. Mr. Bullard served as co-chair of the Miami Corporate Practice at his prior firm and has been recognized by Chambers Global over the last decade in the Latin America-wide and Foreign Experts categories for both Corporate/M&A and Banking and Finance.
"Our team decided to join MoFo because of its outstanding global M&A capabilities and its growing focus on Latin America," said Mr. Bullard, co-chair of the firm's Latin America Desk. "We are excited to work with our new colleagues in representing clients on their blockbuster, industry-changing deals and further building MoFo's Latin America Desk. We are also pleased to join a firm that is renowned for its diversity and inclusion."
The four partners joining Morrison & Foerster bring the following practices:
- Randy Bullard represents multinational clients in connection with cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, and financing transactions throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. Mr. Bullard has advised numerous European global corporations on the establishment and development of their U.S. presence, as well as their Latin America operations. He also represents issuers in equity and debt offerings and exchange listings.
- Alexandra Aguirre represents clients in international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, cross-border financing transactions, and private equity investments throughout Latin America and the United States. She also advises families and their family offices on matters relating to family business governance, such as structure policies and processes, succession planning, building and preserving business value, liquidity alternatives, and exit strategies.
- Enrique Conde regularly represents Latin American and European companies doing business in the United States. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, corporate financings, joint ventures, and all types of general contractual matters throughout the Americas, as well as the Caribbean and Europe.
- Juan Delgado represents domestic and international entities in their mergers and acquisitions, private securities offerings, and bank financings. He has significant experience advising financial institutions with respect to syndicated credit facilities throughout Latin America.
Launch of Latin America Desk
Morrison & Foerster's Latin America Desk provides clients with an efficient and effective combination of the firm's lawyers who can offer global advice with a local perspective, and a large seamless network of local law firms in every major market in Latin America. The firm's Latin American clients already include private and public multinationals, governmental organizations, Fortune 100 financial institutions, and global energy and natural resources companies. In addition to the new team further building out Morrison & Foerster's M&A capabilities in Latin America, the Desk also covers capabilities such as antitrust, finance, investigations and white collar defense (including anti-corruption), privacy and data security, and project finance, representing clients in numerous sectors including energy, infrastructure, and technology.
Ruti Smithline, co-chair of the Latin America Desk with Randy Bullard, was born and raised in Colombia and is a native Spanish speaker. A co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's Investigations & White Collar Defense Group in New York, Ms. Smithline has conducted government-facing and internal investigations throughout Latin America and also proactively helps clients with their compliance needs, including conducting risk assessments, developing compliance programs, and providing training, all without a need for translation.
