Riesgo to lead Jones Day in Brazil

Luis Riesgo, the Managing Partner of Jones Day in Madrid, is to launch the firm’s newly announced São Paulo office and lead the further development of its Brazil practice.

A corporate and M&A lawyer, Riesgo has led the US-based firm’s Spanish office since 2005 and is also currently Chair of Jones Day’s Latin American practice. He will be joined in Brazil by two US corporate partners, Sanjiv Kapur and S. Wade Angus.

The São Paulo office will officially open in January 2011, with Riesgo relocating full-time in the summer of next year. The firm will operate in Brazil as a foreign legal consultancy, as required by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), and with no association or alliance with any local law firm.

The office will be the firm’s 33rd and its second in Latin America after Mexico City, which opened in January 2009 with the integration of local firm De Ovando y Martínez del Campo, with which Jones Day already had a long-standing relationship.

Partner Mercedes Fernández, who leads the firm’s International Litigation and Arbitration practice in Madrid, will take over as Managing Partner in Spain.