Arbitration boutique Dechamps International Law has launched an office in Montevideo after recruiting a senior associate from Freshfields’ international arbitration group in Washington, D.C.
Juan Pomes, Courtesy photo
Juan Pomés will anchor the office as a partner, alongside associate Sabrina Tosi, who joins from leading Uruguayan firm Guyer & Regules. The office also includes two interns.
The firm expects to further expand its team in Montevideo, which already works closely with its Buenos Aires and London-based teams.
Founding partner Jean-Paul Dechamps, based in London, is also a Freshfields alum, as is Buenos Aires-based partner Gustavo Topalian.
Dechamps continues to collaborate with Freshfields on investment treaty matters as co-counsel, including in Lufthansa v Venezuela and South32 v Colombia.
“We are going through a period of growth of our practice and we wanted to consolidate and build upon this momentum,” Dechamps told Law.com International. “The opportunity to recruit Juan, who is an exceptional practitioner with a stellar track record in commercial and investment arbitration, was too good to pass up.”
While at Freshfields, Pomés collaborated with members of the Dechamps team on major matters such as Repsol’s dispute with Argentina following the expropriation of a majority stake in Argentina’s largest energy company, YPF, which resulted in a $5 billion settlement.
Dechamps bills itself as a firm that offers the quality and experience associated with the most prominent international law firms, but without the associated costs and potential conflicts.
Cost pressures have led to a proliferation of arbitration boutiques in recent years amid a mismatch between the high fees commanded by top law firms and the flexible pricing often needed by clients involved in arbitration.
“Since our launching in 2018, Dechamps has achieved a distinct position in the market as a leading international arbitration boutique, operating on a conflict-free platform and with the quality that can be expected of the more established, large international firms,” Jean-Paul Dechamps said.
While Dechamps represents clients around the world, it’s particularly strong in Latin America—a region that spawns a lot of arbitration work.
Dechamps said the decision to open an office in Uruguay mirrors the migration of multiple international companies that have established significant operations there in recent years.
Uruguay’s stable political and economic environment, and Montevideo’s proximity to Buenos Aires, have turned the city into a growing business hub for the Southern Cone.
More broadly, Dechamps said that investment disputes are becoming increasingly complex as state officials grow more sophisticated and knowledgeable about their obligations under investment-protection treaties. This has resulted in more nuanced regulatory conduct, making straightforward cases of direct expropriation more rare.
Many investment cases still involve the mining and energy sectors, and now more frequently pertain to environmental or energy transition measures—both areas in which states have traditionally been granted a fair amount of discretion.
This complexity and the protracted nature of investment disputes, he added, raises the need to establish a proper investment structure early on to ensure that large-value, long-term investments are adequately protected under international law.
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Publish date : 2024-09-29 11:30:00
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