Hogan Lovells has expanded its Latin America offering with the launch of its second office in Brazil, with the hire of former Clifford Chance partner Isabel Costa Carvalho.
Its new São Paulo office will operate as a foreign legal consultancy offering services to local and international companies and banks after the Brazilian Bar Association awarded the firm a license to practise in the region in July 2013.
Capital markets partner Costa Carvalho will lead the new team and focus on bolstering the firm’s Latin America-based equity capital markets, corporate and international debt capital markets practices as well as its New York, Washington and London based capital offering focused on Latin America.
Previously, Costa Carvalho spent two decades at Clifford Chance where she has headed its capital markets practice since 2007. She recently handled a $6bn IPO for BB Seguridade – the largest IPO in Latin America in the last five years.
The new office forms part of the firm’s on-going expansion in Latin America on the back of growing demand from its existing global client base. The firm launched its Rio de Janeiro office in early 2013.
Hogan Lovells’ Rio de Janeiro office managing partner Claudette Christian said: ‘Adding a São Paulo office to our existing Rio de Janeiro operations brings differentiation and diversification to our Brazil and broader Latin American practice.
‘We continue to see interest in Brazil from existing global clients as well as companies that are entering the market for the first time, and we wanted to be able to offer clients a full breadth of expertise in equity and debt capital markets, private equity, infrastructure development and finance, and corporate transactional work across Brazil.’
Costa Carvalho added: ‘Hogan Lovells’ global footprint offers me and my clients exciting new opportunities; in particular, our well-recognized and leading US corporate, finance and regulatory practices are tremendous assets for my clients.