In recent days, the law firm of Baker & McKenzie announced that Ricardo S. Martinez joined the firm as a partner in the Latin American finance and transactional practice in New York.
The addition of Martinez follows a series of lateral partners that have joined Baker & McKenzie’s New York office during the past year. These include international financial services partner Lloyd Winans, Marc Litt, a former Assistant US Attorney from the Southern District of New York as well as the lead prosecutor in the Bernard Madoff fraud scheme, and Niamh Curry, a corporate partner specializing in alternative investment fund matters.
Martinez served as a former in-house counsel with Citigroup, and has over thirteen years of experience in matters regarding complex, cross-border finance matters. He has represented large commercial banks, multilateral institutions and borrowers in many sophisticated finance matters, including acquisition finance, working capital facilities, and major infrastructure and energy project financings. In addition, he has been active in the trade finance area, and has a wide range of experience in letters of credit, pre-export credit facilities and trade receivable financings.
David P. Hackett, Chair of the firm’s Banking & Finance Practice in North America was quoted as saying in a press release at the firm’s website: “We are continuing to see a tremendous amount of interest and investment in Latin America, and I know Rick’s impressive track record in that area and in-house experience will be valued by our clients. We’re delighted he has joined Baker & McKenzie.”
Martinez is fluent in Spanish and possesses broad experience in the Americas. He has closed transactions involving every major Latin American country during his career.
Martinez’s recent representative matters include representing three multilaterals and one development financial institution, in connection with a $155 million project financing of a toll road project in the Dominican Republic, as well as representing a major international bank in connection with a series of secured loans totaling over $1 billion to Latin American financial institutions. In addition, Martinez created and managed a major international bank’s Pre-Export Finance Product for Latin America. This included evaluating select regulatory and compliance issues and franchise risks associated with such product. He also represented a major bank as Lender in a series of term loans totaling approximately $2 billion to a subsidiary of a major multinational retailer, as Borrower and related to the acquisition of a Chilean supermarket chain.
James C. Colihan, Managing Partner of the firm’s New York Office, was quoted as saying: “Rick is a great addition to our growing New York office, and I know our domestic and foreign banking clients will value his insights, particularly in matters involving Latin America or the energy and mining industries.”
International law firm Baker & McKenzie was founded in Chicago in 1949. Currently, the firm has over 3,800 lawyers in over 69 offices in 41 different countries.
