Santiago-based firm Urenda Rencoret Orrego & Dörr has expanded its partnership by welcoming back an attorney who practiced at the firm nearly two decades ago.
Rodrigo de Alencar bolsters the firm’s banking and finance and corporate/M&A practice. Before rejoining Urenda Rencoret, De Alencar spent three years at the Santiago offices of Swiss consulting firm EgonZehnder. There, he advised blue-chip Chilean companies, their boards, and their controllers on the design and implementation of corporate governance structures. De Alencar practiced law at Prieto & Cia for eight years after working an as international associate at Mayer Brown’s Chicago office between August 2001 and September 2002.
De Alencar’s client base is made up of domestic and foreign entities running businesses in Chile. He told IFLR1000 that he sees Chile’s markets as on the upswing.
“Chile’s banking and finance market is robust and stable, thanks to our tested regulations . . . which have allowed us to navigate through several regional and world-wide crises without major internal consequences,” he commented.
The new partner added that the M&A activity has undergone a recovery after a relatively slow 2014 as the government discussed a number of legislative initiatives introduced by President Michele Bachelet when she started her nonconsecutive second term in March 2014. The initiatives included changes to the country’s tax regime, labor code, and foreign investment statute, among other things
“[The discussions] had the effect of slowing the pace at which the M&A activity had run over the previous years,” he said. “The recent approval by Congress of some of these initiatives has given back to investors a sense of stability. GDP growth estimations for Chile, although modest, have been corrected upwards, so we have seen the M&A market picking up again.”
De Alencar earned his J.D from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds an LL.M from the University of Chicago. In 2007, he completed a Negotiation Program at Harvard Law School. He currently is a law professor at the Universidad de Los Andes and the LL.M program of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.