Latin America

Fenwick Elliott LLP in alliance with Molina Ríos is a collaboration based in offices across the United Kingdom and Chile focusing specifically on construction and energy law matters in Latin America.

The alliance brings together the firms’ joint expertise in construction and energy law and complex international arbitration, to provide the clients with a comprehensive offering within Latin America and internationally.

As the economies of LATAM expand, the alliance was formed to add further value to all the law firms’ respective clients, due to the demand for new construction and infrastructure projects, as well as the need for updated and expanded energy systems to support this growth.

The attention to sustainability within LATAM where there is an increasing focus on smart city development, renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower, also perfectly complements the alliance firms’ collective expertise in these fields, supported by LATAM countries continuing to attract foreign investment, allowing for a growing number of new opportunities for international construction and energy companies to enter the market.

Both Fenwick Elliott and with Molina Ríos have outstanding track records for first-class legal services in the construction, energy and infrastructures industries – both for project services and international arbitration and dispute resolution.

Our aim is to work with the leading regional and international entities involved in constructing the future icons, landmarks and major infrastructure across Latin America.

Our alliance allows us to provide the Latin American market with expert knowledge of local laws and procedures, as well as renowned international expertise in construction and energy law.

The combination of high-profile international construction and energy lawyers from Fenwick Elliott working alongside Molina Ríos will offer clients access to a unique level of local and focused construction and energy law advice, to meet the increasingly complex nature of projects.

By providing top level expertise to our clients that tackle complex legal issues, we aim to enable all our clients to remain focused on their core businesses while having the peace of mind that their legal issues are being handled by the best lawyers.

Examples of our experience in Latin America include:

300MW solar plant, Mexico

Advised a joint venture comprising a Chinese contractor working as an EPC contractor in respect of claims for delays to the project relating to both the Low Voltage and High Voltage works and represented the contractor in dispute resolution proceedings before a Dispute Adjudication Board. The contract was governed by Mexican law.

Power Station, Caribbean (ICC)

Acted for the owner of a power station in the Caribbean in relation to an ICC arbitration for in excess of US$95 million. The issues we are advising on include a claim for repayment of monies called on a performance security in light of the contractor’s failure to pay over liquidated damages claimed. We are also defending a claim made for loss of profit and other financial damages arising out of the performance security which involves obtaining reports from accountancy experts as to the impact of the bond call on the contractor’s finances (as opposed to other factors such as poor financial performance and COVID-19).