Holland & Knight is pleased to announce that Juan Carlos Valencia Marquez, Vicente Umaña Carrizosa, and Felipe Sandoval Villamil have joined the firm as partners in the firm’s new Bogotá, Colombia office. Lucas Saffon López has also joined as an associate. Each attorney is admitted to practice law in Colombia.
“Since we opened our new office in Bogotá, we have received an incredible amount of interest from local attorneys hoping to work with an international firm,” said Enrique Gómez-Pinzón, executive partner of Holland & Knight’s Bogotá office.” These four attorneys were chosen for their impressive legal and business experience in areas critical to Colombia’s growth: international transactions, tax, labor, and energy. We are enthusiastic about our expansion and look forward to offering a broad range of legal services to clients who are operating or investing in Colombia.”
Juan Carlos Valencia Marquez has more than 15 years of experience practicing in corporate and tax law. He advises international corporations on how to plan, mitigate and address their corporate tax liabilities in Colombia and across the region. Mr. Valencia Marquez has been an advisor to the Colombian government in tax-related matters and has recently supported the commercial section of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá by advising the Franchise Mission on Colombian regulatory issues. He joins the firm from Valencia Abogados and Asociados. He previously served as general counsel of Arcos Dorados (McDonald’s master franchisee for Latin America) and corporate tax director for Coca-Cola Femsa S.A. de C.V. His experience includes deals and matters in diverse jurisdictions such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Switzerland, United States, and Venezuela, among others.
Vicente Umaña Carrizosa has 15 years of experience advising companies on their labor and employment issues in Colombia and Latin America. His experience includes the development and implementation of labor legal strategies, managing relationships with Colombian labor unions, and negotiating collective bargaining agreements. Mr. Umaña is one of the few bilingual labor law attorneys in Colombia and most recently served as the VP of labor relations of Citibank in Colombia and Central America. Prior to his work with Citi, he was area counsel for Spanish-speaking South America and legal advisor for labor issues to IBM in Latin America.
Felipe Sandoval Villamil has more than 14 years of experience in legal and business matters in the mining and oil and gas sectors, where he focuses on corporate, financial and transactional matters ranging from all sorts of contractual and business structures and day to day issues, to more complex transactions both in a local and international context. Mr. Sandoval Villamil most recently served as legal counsel for Southern Cross Energy. In the past, he acted as legal VP for Vetra Energía SL and GM Colombia and Regional Legal Manager for Harken de Colombia Limited. His experience includes deals and matters in diverse jurisdictions such as Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, US, Iraq (Kurdistan), among others.
Lucas Saffon López has eight years of experience in advising national and foreign companies in corporate and business matters. He focuses in the areas of international syndications, M&A, project finance, hotel franchise agreements, and real estate. Mr. Saffon has been involved in transactions in Colombia such as M&A, financings, long-term lease agreements and in the negotiation of EPC agreements for infrastructure projects. Before joining Holland & Knight as an associate, Mr. Saffon practiced as international associate in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office for nearly a year and later in one of Panama’s leading law firms. Prior to this experience, he practiced law in one of Colombia´s most renowned law firms.
