Squire Sanders partner Alejandro Peña-Prieto has been named to leading Latin America business publication Latinvex’s annual list of “Latin America’s Top 100 Lawyers,” which recognizes the “leading attorneys from international law firms that are involved in the growing legal business in Latin America.” Mr. Peña-Prieto is the managing partner of the Squire Sanders Santo Domingo office and one of four members on the Steering Committee of the Squire Sanders Latin America Practice Group.
Winners were selected by the Latinvex editorial staff based on a variety of factors, including recent track record on major deals and business, prominence of firm in Latin America, and rankings by third parties such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, and Thomson Reuters.
Mr. Peña-Prieto concentrates his practice on assisting and providing strategic business counsel to US, Latin American, and European investors with significant business interests in the Dominican Republic and other countries in Latin America, particularly in the energy, banking and finance, real estate and hospitality, and consumer products sectors.
Most recently, Mr. Peña-Prieto led a team with Santo Domingo partner Awilda Alcantara-Bourdier of Squire Sanders lawyers in representing the principal shareholders of Grupo Financiero León, S.A. in its successful integration with Centro Financiero BHD, S.A., owner of the Dominican Republic’s second largest bank. This transaction is the largest deal to date in the Dominican Republic’s financial sector. Once the corresponding authorization process concludes, the multiple service banks BHD and León will be integrated into a single entity under the name of Banco BHD León. The newly merged entity will be the Dominican Republic’s second largest privately held bank with a 20% market share. It will also be the fifth private bank in the Central American/Caribbean region, with assets amounting to 182 billion pesos (approximately US$4.2 billion).
For the past several years, Chambers and Partners has recognized Mr. Peña-Prieto as one of the country’s top lawyers in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers. He was also recognized in Chambers Latin America 2012, 2013, and 2014, and has been included in IFLR1000, The International Who’s Who of Mergers and Acquisition Lawyers, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers Annual Compendium, and LatinLawyer 250 for his work in the Dominican Republic.