Miranda & Amado

Acting as co-counsel in several ICSID claims against Peru

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”.