
Professional notice
Acting as co-counsel in several ICSID claims against Peru
People in Who’s Who Legal | 1 |
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People in Future Leaders | 2 |
Pending cases as counsel | 7 |
Value of pending counsel work | US$1.25 billion+ |
Treaty cases as counsel | 0 |
Highly regarded for its cross-border transactional work, Miranda & Amado is also one of the few Peruvian firms to have acquired an international arbitration profile. It owes that reputation in large part to practice head José Daniel Amado, who cut his teeth at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr working with Gary Born and the late Arthur Marriott.
The firm opened in 1999, at the end of a decade which had seen arbitration beginning to develop in Peru. Early successes came in the 2000s when it teamed up with White & Case for a US$100 million construction dispute and Freshfields in an important case over delays in the construction of the Camisea gas pipeline. But it really made its mark acting for Duke Energy in the first successful ICSID claim against Peru.
Amado is the vice president of the ICC Peru Arbitration Commission, having served as chair of the Peruvian Arbitration Institute earlier; and he is a professor at the Catholic University of Peru. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, and a past scholar-in-residence at WilmerHale.
In 2018, the firm merged with Peruvian disputes boutique Priori & Carrillo, adding partners including Giovanni Priori, who now co-heads Miranda & Amado’s litigation practice alongside Mauricio Raffo.
Another name to know is Cristina Ferraro, who returned to the firm in 2014 after spells with King & Spalding and Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle, and has worked on a number of investor-state matters.
Who uses it?
The Camisea consortium – made up of Argentina’s Pluspetrol and Tecpetrol, the US’s Hunt Oil, South Korea’s SK Group, Spain’s Repsol and Algeria’s Sonatrach – has used the firm for an ICSID case over Peru’s largest natural gas project. It has provided expert evidence for parties in various other ICSID cases against Peru.
Other clients in the energy sector include Engie (in a case relating to a major earthquake), Norway’s Interoil, Transportadora de Gas del Perú and subsidiaries of Israel’s IC Power. It has also acted for Siemens, Abengoa, Skanska, Telefónica, Hochschild Mining, Sacyr and General Electric.
The firm defended the government of China in two CIETAC cases concerning ownership of Peru’s largest iron ore mine.
Track record
Miranda & Amado teamed up with King & Spalding to represent Vancouver-based Bear Creek Mining in an investment treaty claim against Peru, winning an award in 2017 worth US$30.4 million for the expropriation of a silver mine concession.
The firm won a favourable settlement for an Abengoa subsidiary after it threatened an ICSID claim against Peru over a demand for US$35 million in penalties. More recently the firm helped Maersk subsidiary APM Terminals Callao settle an ICSID claim against Peru over the construction of a marine terminal.
In 2016, the firm secured a US$10 million award for Quebec-based engineering firm Dessau in an arbitration with the Peruvian regional government of Loreto. The tribunal also rejected Loreto’s US$70 million counterclaim.
Recent events
Miranda & Amado is co-counselling with three different firms in ICSID claims against Peru, with a fourth claim also on the horizon.
With Chaffetz Lindsey, it is acting for Denmark’s Maersk Group in another claim over a delay-hit project to modernise one of the country’s largest ports. And the firm has teamed up with King & Spalding to represent a subsidiary of Houston-headquartered Quanta Services in a telecoms-related dispute. Both claims were filed in 2021.
Miranda & Amado also continues to act with co-counsel Dechert for a subsidiary of Spanish transport infrastructure group OHL Concesiones in another claim against the South American country concerning delays to a project to improve a stretch of the Pan-American Highway.
And Miranda & Amado has paired with Gibson Dunn to represent Korean energy company SK Innovation in another potential claim against Peru, with a threat being issued in 2021. That dispute concerns the blocking of the billion-dollar sale of SK’s gas investments in the Amazon basin.
The firm also regularly appears as counsel in arbitrations at the Lima Chamber of Commerce. The matters range from construction disputes to issues arising out of shareholder agreements.
Longstanding partner Juan Luis Avendaño Valdez retired in 2020 after 40 years in the field.
Client comment
Diana Garate of the Netherlands’ APM Terminals says Miranda & Amado “comprehensive advice and multi-industry approach” sets them apart from other firms.
Spanish oil company Repsol engaged the firm for a dispute at the Lima Chamber of Commerce over an EPC contract. Director of legal services Gianna Macchiavello was impressed by a “very competitive bilingual team”.
Partners: 25 Other lawyers: 88 Total Staff: 160+
THE FIRM: Miranda & Amado is a full-service Peruvian law firm with an international outlook. A market leader across a range of practice areas, it is renowned for its expert handling of highly sophisticated transactions and cross-border deals for a predominantly multinational clientele. This international experience has led to the team being instructed by clients to coordinate regional transactions in the role traditionally assumed by US firms; this is unique in Peru and rare among law firms across Latin America. Miranda & Amado covers all areas of the law while maintaining its boutique approach to highly sophisticated matters in sectors such as electricity, oil and gas, telecoms, mining, infrastructure, real estate and banking, finance and insurance. Expertise in these fields is well supplemented by market leading practice groups in finance, M&A, litigation, labour, tax, environmental, insolvency, competition and antitrust. The firm also stands out for participating in the most innovative and first-of-their-kind transactions in Peru.
TOP-NOTCH TALENT: Miranda & Amado is at the forefront of the legal service industry in Peru, for which it relies on its top-notch team of lawyers that is committed to and focused on excellence-based performance. Among the leading Peruvian law firms, Miranda & Amado has by far the highest number of lawyers who have pursued graduate education in the top law schools around the world, and with experience working at top-tier international law firms.
INTERNATIONAL WORK: The firm is part of Affinitas, an alliance established in 2004 and composed of leading law firms in the four countries of the Pacific Alliance. It comprises over 400 lawyers committed to responding to clients’ needs through a close-knit network, ensuring consistency and quality of service.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION: The firm has the largest disputes department in the country, with 20+ full-time lawyers, including 5 partners and 2 counsels, dedicated to dispute resolution, handling more than 300 proceedings, including litigation before all levels of Peruvian courts, as well as local and international arbitration. The firm is a pioneer in international investment arbitration and continuously provides advice and represents parties in ISDS.
The firm is highly active and a market leader in arbitration, participating in many of the market’s biggest cases, currently handling 50+ arbitration procedures (including a 12+ high-profile international arbitrations) and has developed strong experience in infrastructure arbitration, managing disputes valued at roughly USD1 billion.
Miranda & Amado is a pioneer in international arbitration in Peru. During the past 12 months, the firm has been involved in several international arbitrations, having developed market-leading expertise in the area. Two of the high-profile international disputes are investment arbitrations under ICSID rules. The other cases are under UNCITRAL rules, ICC rules and the arbitration rules of Peru based institutions.
Miranda & Amado has participated in various other disputes of a different nature. By way of example, the firm has participated in an arbitration case that became the starting point of what is now understood as technical ADR in Peru.
International commercial arbitration has been important to the firm from day one, either as part of a broader dispute or as a single ‘all-or-nothing’ case. The firm has participated in many widely publicized cases, representing clients such as General Electric (which evolved into criminal charges against the GE’s international board), the LCIA defense of a GDF Suez subsidiary (originating from a major earthquake in the south of Peru), Interoil Peru S.A. (resulting into the validation of the company’s release of two oil-producing blocks), Dessau v. Loreto (which resulted in a favourable award dismissing over US$ 60 million in claims against our client)
The firm is currently handling more than 50 complex arbitration procedures ranging from regulatory to construction, commercial and investment disputes.
Contact
LinkedIn: Miranda & Amado
Twitter: @MAfirma_legal
Website: mafirma.pe
Tel: +511 610 4747