Baker Mckenzie has been present in Colombia since 1937. The multinational firm has an office located in Bogotá. The highly regarded multidisciplinary team can handle local and international transactions.

Focusses / specialisms

The banking and finance team shines in several areas, including acquisition finance, project finance, financial regulatory advice and cross-border and structured finance. The team advised both borrowers and lenders in loans, financial restructuring and credit facilities.

Debt and equity capital markets is an active area for the firm, where it advises issuers and structuring and placement agents in debt offerings, bond issues and securitizations.

The corporate and M&A team advises local and international clients in private equity, public and strategic transactions. The team assists both buyers and sellers in joint ventures and acquisitions.

The project development team has great experience in PPP projects, concession bids and greenfield and brownfield development.  The team is highly regarded for its work in mining, covering areas such as contracts, environmental and regulatory matters and real estate.

Key clients

Key clients for the firm include JP Morgan, Brookfield Asset Management, Wells Fargo, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of New York Mellon, PayPal, Peabody Energy Corporation Amazon and Nielsen Colombia.

Client feedback: 31st edition (2020/2021)

Banking and finance

"Area led by Ricardo Trejos provides swift response and personal approach to every matter. We feel deeply supported by their advice and in particular their honesty when dealing with complex matters. They are not afraid to highlight challenges and obstacles in the transactions and likewise they bring up creative solutions aiming to make projects successful."

"Experience and knowledge."

"Incredible product knowledge. Deep lawyer bench. Proactive and creative. Commercial and know-how to get a transaction closed."

"The law firm is composed of members with extensive experience in specific matters that enriches the thorough legal analysis that they perform from different perspectives (particularly, we worked with Ricardo Trejos, Sebastian Boada and Daniel Botero). Such members are directly involved and have worked hand in hand with us. This may be the best attribute, especially compared to other banking and finance teams (ie, the senior lawyers are directly and constantly involved)."

"They understand our needs and are very smart when negotiating with our debtors. Additionally, they already know our internal policies so working with them is very efficient."

Capital markets: Debt

"Good assistance under NY law, highly professional and talented team."

Capital markets : Equity

"The advice has been timely and complete."

M&A

"Top legal advisory firm with the ability to recognise key business topics. Strong leadership and senior participation along the whole process."

Project development : Mining

"The contract was just brilliant. They perfectly captured the needs of our company, understanding each of the different variables and were able to synthesise all these points in a contract which, from the beginning, was really complex due to the nature of the business."

"They are knowledgeable about the subject, proactive, quick to respond and integrate comparative law."