LatinFinance - January/February 2016 - 48

"People are doing different things in the
crisis, but they're still doing them. Staying
on top of that involves reacting intelligently
in the way the landscape changes."
Indeed, the firm's attorneys take a
flexible approach to projects and are
rewarded with a variety of work, often
operating across practice areas and
jurisdictions. The firm, which has 16 offices
globally, opened offices in Buenos Aires
in 2009, followed by a São Paulo office in
2011. Cleary has roughly 100 lawyers with
Spanish fluency and 25 with Portuguese.
"The people we have in Latin America
do a lot of different kinds of practices, a
lot of different things. They're attuned to
the opportunities to use different skills at
different times," Grabar says, adding that
Cleary also looks to leverage expertise
from its global cast of 1,200 attorneys, who
hail from more than 50 countries, to the
advantage of Latin American clients.
Local presence and a nuanced
understanding of business and legal
cultures are also fundamental to the firm's
activity in the region. Cleary's focus on
locality is complemented by a program
where it hosts Latin American attorneys
for a year in its offices, before these
lawyers return to governments, firms
and corporations in the region. "Those
people are a big source of pride for us
over the years and it's a deep source of
understanding and respect for the national
traditions in each of the countries where
we're working," Grabar says.
The program is a reflection of a strong
tradition of mentorship at Cleary, where
senior attorneys nurture relationships
between clients and junior colleagues. "We
have deep relationships with particular
companies and governments and law
firms and banks. That's over a couple of
generations of lawyers. I learned my way
around Latin America starting in 1989
from people that are now retired, and they
in turn learned Latin America from their
mentors," Grabar says.
As a result of this consistent presence,
Cleary is gearing up for restructurings, as
well corporate crisis management in the
short to medium-term, Grabar says. Recent
experience suggests the firm is in good
stead: Cleary participated in Corporación
Geo's $3.9 billion restructuring in 2015,
which has netted LatinFinance's award for
Restructuring of the Year.
Grabar notes that a lot of this activity,
including an increasing trend for local-law
transactions, is emblematic of the growing

48 LATINFINANCE.COM - January/February 2016

financial and legal savvy of Cleary's Latin
American clients. "One of the biggest
changes I've seen in the last 25 years is the
growth in sophistication of our clientele,"
Grabar says. "The kinds of stuff we're doing
in Latin America is the same stuff we're
doing everywhere else." LF

LAW FIRM: BRAZIL

MACHADO MEYER
While emphasizing
long-term client relationships, this firm is targeting a
growing volume of mergers
and acquisitions
Machado Meyer navigated 2015 with
remarkable success. Despite the economic
and political turmoil racking public and
private institutions in Brazil, the firm
remained a leading institution for capital
markets deals, participating in some of the
country's most impressive transactions
in the year ending in September 30, such
as BRF's liability management exercise
and Telefônica Vivo's acquisition of Global
Village Telecom (GVT).
"We thought 2015 wouldn't be good,
but it has proven to be the contrary for us,
because it's been a good year for mergers
and acquisitions," partner Adriana Pallis
tells LatinFinance. "We also expect a good
2016."

LatAm Staff: 300
LatAm Offices: São Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro, Brasília, Porto Alegre, and
Belo Horizonte
Remarkable Deals: BRF's €500m
green bond and Telefônica Vivo's
acquisition of GVT

The acquisition of GVT by Telefônica
was a landmark deal in Brazil, and Latin
America. Pallis advised Telefônica in its
negotiations with French seller Vivendi
that led to the €7.45 billion ($8.2 billion)
transaction. Once completed, Telefônica
Brazil became the largest integrated
telecommunication company in the
country. This transaction is only the most
recent collaboration between the firm
and the telco: Machado Meyer assisted
the corporation when it arrived in Brazil
in 1998, purchasing telecom company
CRT of Rio Grande do Sul. "We advise
them on everyday activities and strategic
movements alike," Pallis says.
The firm expects a larger flow of M&A
transactions, amid Brazil's political
and economic uncertainty. With a
steep devaluation of the real, and local
companies in distress, the environment
favors foreign investors looking to pick up
cheap assets in Brazil. Those with previous
knowledge of the country will have a
particular advantage, Pallis says. "Those
accustomed to our markets, politics,
economics, already know that crises come
and go."
Machado Meyer also worked with BRF
on important deals. The firm advised the
meat producer on its €500 million ($558
million) liability management exercise in
May and its sale of 11 dairy plants to France's
Lactalis for 2.16 billion reais ($697 million)
in July 2015.
The firm is also active in project
financing, a sector that is garnering
significant private sector attention, and
garnered the Best Infrastructure Law Firm:
Brazil accolade in LatinFinance's 2015
Project and Infrastructure Finance Awards.
"We put first the understanding of
our clients' needs, that's why we have
participated in these premium deals
assisting companies of such magnitude. We
have a good team, prepared for high-end
transactions," Pallis says. The firm employs
300 lawyers, in addition to 50 partners,
in its offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Brasília, Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte.
Additionally, it keeps an office in New York
to serve Brazilian clients with business in
the US.
Looking ahead, Machado Meyer will
likely devote a large portion of its business
to banking clients in negotiations related
to judicial recovery, Pallis says. The firm
tends to represent creditors in this area of
practice, and has worked in cases involving
civil construction companies in distress
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LatinFinance - January/February 2016
