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Herbert Smith Freehills Partner Christian Leathley has been singled out as one of the top foreign lawyers in Latin America, according to Latinvex’s Latin America’s Top 100 Lawyers 2020 rankings.

Christian, who is the Head of the Latin America Group as well as the US Head of International Arbitration, was showcased in the arbitration and litigation categories. 

The list, which is now in its seventh year, was compiled by the editorial and research staff at Latinvex, who selected the leading attorneys from international law firms active in Latin America. The criteria they used to get to the final list included: looking for a recent track record acting on major deals; prominence of the firm in Latin America; and rankings by third parties such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500 and Refinitiv

The rankings span a range of categories including: arbitration & litigation; banking & finance; capital markets; corporate/M&A; energy; fraud and project finance. 

To access the full list, click here (subscription required).

Lauded by the directories as "very responsive, available and diligent”, Christian specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration and dedicates much of his practice to our clients' interests in Latin America. He is based in New York and he works closely with our London, Madrid, Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong offices. He acts for corporations and sovereign states across all major industry sectors, and in particular energy (oil & gas, power), mining, infrastructure and telecommunications. He has over 20 years' of experience working in all jurisdictions throughout Central and South America. 

The news comes after the firm recently debuted in the annual release of the Latinvex rankings for 'Latin America: Top International Law Firms'. The firm received solid rankings in five out of seventeen subcategories, as well as being ranked 24th (out of 50 firms) in the overall category. In the subcategories, the firm is ranked 7th for mining, 12th for arbitration, 12th for corporate/M&A, 18th for banking & finance and 2nd for environment. The full 2020 rankings can be viewed here (subscription required).