Argentine firm Salaverri Dellatorre Burgio & Wetzler Malbrán continues to develop a presence in the legal market with the expansion of its partnership. The two-year-old firm has announced the promotion of three of its associates, Martín Fernández Dussaut, Leonardo Bujía, and Tomás Arnaudeto, to the partnership, which now stands at eight. All three of the new partners are based in Buenos Aires.
Dussaut specializes in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, international transactions, capital markets, corporate finance, foreign exchange regulations, and real estate. He was an associate at Errecondo Salaverri Dellatorre González & Burgio for eight years until 2012 with an interim as an international associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York from 2008 to 2009. He has also practiced at Bruchou Fernández Madero & Lombardi and at Marval O’Farrel & Mairal. His extensive track record includes advising clients as diverse as Banco de Servicios & Transacciones, Banco Itaú Argentina, Central Térmica Güemes, Central Térmica Loma de la Lata, Central Térmica Piedra Buena, Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte, Grupo Dolphin, Hidden Lake, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Pampa Energía, Petrolera Pampa, Petroquímica Comodoro Rivadavia, Salta Refrescos, Southern Cross Group, Tavistock Group, and the Coca-Cola Company.
Dussaut, who granted an interview to IFLR1000, said one of the principal advantages he gained from his time at Cleary Gottlieb is a methodology for his legal work.
“Americans in general, and American law firms in particular, are very developed in implementing methods for everything,” he said. “As lawyers, we are not trained to have procedures or methods for our working tasks, and everything depends on each lawyer. Consequently, our work is subject to more errors. I’ve learned a method to deal with each particular transaction that I worked on at Cleary and that helped me a lot in my day-to-day work in Buenos Aires. The transactions that I worked on at Cleary were all sophisticated and challenging, and different from the transactions I used to work on in my Argentine firm, so [the role] expanded my experience and knowledge.”
Dussaut added that given the current governmental intervention in Argentina, a corporate lawyer must be well trained and up to date in several practice areas that in the past were reserved to specialists, such as tax law and foreign exchange regulations.
“Corporate lawyers tend to be more general lawyers than in the past, and that is mainly because taxes and foreign exchange regulations, among others, have become the key issues in almost every transaction and deal in Argentina,” he said.
Bujía specializes in corporate advice, insurance rights, commercial sports, retail, real estate, consumer protection and commercial loyalty law, and commercial litigation. He was an associate at Errecondo Salaverri Dellatorre González & Burgio for three years and has been a senior lawyer at Coto C.I.C.S.A.
Arnaude’s expertise lies in M&A, capital markets, corporate finance, and general corporate law. He held the title of international associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York from 2010 to 2011. He has also been an associate at Errecondo Salaverri Dellatorre González & Burgio and a law clerk at Sanchez Elía & Asociados and Cárdenas Cassagne & Asociados.