Latin America

Beveridge & Diamond’s international environmental law practice directly supports clients with environmental, health, and safety (EHS) legal needs in Latin America. B&D lawyers in this service area are fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, have lived or studied in the region, and are deeply familiar with the environmental legal regimes and future trends in many Latin American jurisdictions. Our close working relationships with leading in-country environmental counsel and technical consultants enhance our boots-on-the-ground expertise.

For nearly two decades, we have helped shape existing laws and regulations through our support of clients’ advocacy. We are instrumental in helping clients obtain numerous permits and registrations, manage transactions, and provide guidance on enforcement and litigation matters, including strategic counsel on remediation projects.

Our Latin American experience includes:

  • Providing a FORTUNE® 50 company in-depth legal research, analysis, and strategic counseling on the end-of-life management of waste electronic and electrical equipment under the environmental laws of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru.
  • Advising three chemical companies in Brazil on matters arising from isolated findings of contaminants in soil or groundwater samples and providing strategic advice to help our clients avoid liability in which our broad experience in the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, familiarity with multilateral environmental forums, and understanding of Brazilian law uniquely positioned us to reframe the assumptions underlying the investigations of our clients’ facilities.
  • Serving as strategic counsel for a chemical manufacturing client in Venezuela following its indictment for alleged criminal violations of dangerous goods shipping requirements, where we examined the factual findings and applicable Venezuelan laws and developed the strategy and outline for the legal appeal prepared by local counsel as well as the briefs and provided substantive comments and necessary redirection which resulted in the dismissal of all criminal allegations.

To facilitate knowledge sharing and relationship building, we host a roundtable of industry leaders on Latin America's environmental regulatory trends and have developed a Latin American Environmental Regulation Resource Center.

Latinvex, a leading Latin American business publication, recognized B&D as one of “Latin America’s Top 50 Law Firms” in 2015 and 2018-2023 and named Maddie Boyer, the firm’s Latin American Region practice leader, as one of Latin America’s top 100 female lawyers from 2014-2023 and named her one of the Region’s top 100 lawyers overall from 2017-2023.