Practices

Administrative and Regulatory Water Banking and Finance Bonds and Securitization Initial Public Offers and Stock Tender Offers Compliance and Money Laundering Prevention Concessions Corporate and M&A Derivatives and Other Financial Agreements Investment Funds Corporate Governance Real Estate Employment and Labor Competition Environment and Natural Resources Capital Markets Mining Negotiations, Litigation and Arbitration Consumer Protection Taxation

Practices

Administrative and Regulatory

We advise our clients in the different areas of public law, which encompasses constitutional, administrative, municipal and regulatory law.  Our experience dealing with all types of government agencies is vast and solid, and we are expert in handling administrative procedures and court claims.  We are able to respond efficiently to different contingencies that our clients face with governmental agencies.

Water

We represent our clients in all aspects of Water Law, such as establishing water rights, securing permits and authorizations under the particular code.

We counsel them in bringing matters in conformity with regulations.  We prepare title opinions, help clients perfect the titles to water rights, and defend those rights before courts and administrative agencies.  We also establish user organizations, draft contracts and provide counsel in using water rights for hydroelectric power generation.  We guide our clients in navigating through the different procedures and workings under the water laws.

Banking and Finance

We regularly advise clients in connection with banking and finance transactions. We act as permanent counsel to numerous banks and have been involved in several complex loan transactions.

Bonds and Securitization

We are leaders in providing legal counsel in complex bond and securitization transactions.

We have worked on more than 40 securitized debt issuances, including a collateralized debt obligations for a foreign investment bank.

Our attorneys have handled the legal aspects of numerous bonds issuances on the local and international markets.

Initial Public Offers and Stock Tender Offers

We have vast experience in counseling clients in initial public offers (IPOs), stock tender offers and in the structuring of those transactions according to regulations and existing contracts.

Compliance and Money Laundering Prevention

We advise clients in compliance matters and regulatory issues applicable to entities in the financial market as well as non-regulated entities.  Our services involve drafting, reviewing and implementing compliance policy procedures, for example, on the criminal liability of legal entities, prevention of asset laundering, terrorism financing and bribery.

We have extensive practical experience in implementing onboarding and know-your-customer policies, risk manuals, codes of conduct, crime prevention manuals and confidentiality procedures.  We also provide training of staff normally required under these policies.

We represent our clients before the different authorities in inquests or audits, before the ordinary courts and before the Contraloría General de la República.

Concessions

We advise our clients participating in tenders or in the acquisition of different types of concessions for sanitary services, electricity generation and distribution, port operation, road construction and operation, toll road construction and operation, and airport construction and operation; and in obtaining, changing and transferring maritime and aquiculture concessions.

We represent concessionaires in the concession award, acquisition and operation process and as needed before the pertinent governing authorities.  We also counsel them in the rules on fee calculation and collection.

Corporate and M&A

We have extensive experience in integral corporate matters.

Our firm has an in-depth knowledge of the commercial law practice in Chile and significant hands-on experience.  We have gained fame internationally in transactions of this nature, including local mergers and acquisitions and cross-border transactions.

Derivatives and Other Financial Agreements

We provide legal advice negotiating and structuring local and foreign derivatives agreements, repos, both on stock exchanges and over the counter (OTC). We also handle transactions entered into under master derivatives or repos.

Our team is fully knowledgeable in the latest regulations applicable to derivatives and repos, both locally and abroad, specifically the new bankruptcy law of Chile, the netting regulations issued by the Chilean Central Bank, and the impacts of the Dodd Frank Act and European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) on Chilean companies, whether or not they have a presence in the United States and Europe.

The counterparties to our clients –more than 50 local and foreign banks— have commended our lawyers for their expertise in derivatives negotiations, specifically ISDAs and the corresponding schedules, CSAs and confirmations, GMRAs and the local master agreements.

Investment Funds

We have broad experience in forming mutual funds, open-end And closed-end investment funds and private investment funds.

We regularly advise general fund managers and private investment fund managers in connection with regulations, contracts and legal aspects. We have also organized closed-end investment funds that invest in real property, energy and grasslands; securitized investments, income-generating property and venture capital.

We also counsel foreign investment funds with their needs in Chile, including securing approval by the Risk Rating Commission for local and institutional investors to invest in them, and registering them with the Commission for the Financial Market so that they can make a public offer in Chile.

Corporate Governance

We work actively with the boards of directors of open and regulated corporations to establish rules of conduct on conflicts of interest and good corporate governance practice, to ensure that the company’s policies conform to the corporate governance regulations of the Commission for the Financial Market and the Banking Superintendence.

We represent our clients in related-party transactions, in determining the control of a company and the legal implications, and in meeting the information requirements applicable to controllers, members of the controlling group and business group.

Real Estate

Our work in real estate developments includes the planning, funding, acquisition, construction, legal compliance and start-up. We draft and negotiate all service contracts involved in these projects.

We also deal with the corresponding administrative and municipal authorities to secure the approvals and authorizations required for projects.

Employment and Labor

Our firm has vast experience in representing and counseling national and international companies in the diverse stages and aspects of labor relations, both individual and collective.

Legal counsel includes permanent support in the company’s day-to-day activities, in hiring and in terminating employees.  We provide guidance in establishing work shifts and compensation, in relations with third parties (subcontracting and outsourcing), in collective bargaining with unions and other labor associations, and we provide representation before labor authorities.

Our services also include assistance in restructuring, labor due diligence and collective bargaining.

We also draft employment contracts for foreign staff, obtain visas to work in Chile and prepare and monitor applications submitted to the Central Bank of Chile for the payment of salary in a foreign currency and for the remittance of pension fund contributions to abroad.

We represent our clients in the negotiation of compensation and severance pay in the event of contract termination and in the defense of their interests administratively and judicially.

Our lawyers can conduct preventive labor audits and provide training in labor and migration matters.

Competition

We counsel our clients in all aspects of antitrust laws and regulated markets that include submissions to the Office of the National Economic Prosecutor, administrative contentious and non-contentious procedures before the Antitrust Court and the Supreme Court, and the control of concentration transactions.

We handle the approval of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures before the Antitrust Court and the Office of the National Economic Prosecutor.

Environment and Natural Resources

We are expert in environmental law and matters relating to the use and administration of natural resources.  We represent our clients in the environmental assessment of different types of investment projects, in understanding the application of environmental regulations to their business, and any aspects of renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

We handle environmental appeals and administrative and judicial defenses, remedies of protection, and environmental damage claims.  We show our clients how to make use of environmental management tools (bonds, tradable emission permits, taxes, etc.) and how to implement environmental management systems and receive ISO and other certifications.

Capital Markets

We have great expertise in the issuance of debt and equity securities and are counsel to the underwriters involved in the distribution of those securities.  We represent our clients that wish to go public, make stock purchase offers or issue securities in response to changes in domestic and foreign markets.  Those transactions include complex fixed-income, stock and securitized bond issuances.

We act as counsel to major players on the local and foreign financial markets, such as banks, stock brokers, securities agents, investment fund managers, commodities brokers and securitization companies in all aspects of regulations, administrative procedures with the capital market regulators and judicial defense of stock, derivatives and securities market transactions.

Mining

We assist our clients in all stages of a mining project, from mining exploration to the acquisition of the respective concession and the organization, financing and commercial operation of the project.

We are legal counsel to Chilean and foreign investors, banks and financial institutions that want to get involved in mining project financing in Chile. 

We know how to protect mining concessions before the courts or administrative agencies, to defend concessions in process, prepare title opinions and incorporate mining companies, in particular those governed by the Mining Code. We also process easements.

Negotiations, Litigation and Arbitration

We represent our clients in any type of negotiation by designing strategies that result in satisfactory agreements.  We represent them in any type of action before the ordinary courts of justice or arbitral tribunals.

Some of our partners are arbitrators, appointed directly by the parties, by private agencies specialized in arbitration or by the Ordinary Courts of Justice.

Consumer Protection

We counsel our clients in consumer relations, both individual and collective.  We structure and implement recalls.

We represent the interests of our client in individual and/or collective disputes, both administrative and judicial, in mediation and other consumer protection proceedings.

Taxation

We advise our clients in the design and implementation of structures appropriate to their businesses and we develop strategies and solutions to maximize resources via an optimal legal organization.

We prepare opinions on the tax impacts of different acts or contracts and guide our clients in their international transactions by working with tax experts in different jurisdictions.

We present inquiries to the Internal Revenue Service of Chile and advise and represent our clients in audits by that Service and in tax lawsuits.