Reed Smith announced today that it has made significant additions to its international arbitration and cross-border litigation capabilities with the appointment of Francisco A. Rodriguez and Sandra J. Millor as partners in the firm’s Global Commercial Disputes practice in Miami. Rodriguez and Millor, both of whom join from Akerman, also bring depth and experience to the firm’s Latin America practice. The two new partners will be joined by foreign legal consultant Gilberto Guerrero-Rocca, who has extensive experience on international commercial arbitration and investor-state arbitration.
Related Professionals: Francisco A. Rodriguez Sandra J. Millor Janet H. Kwuon Constantine Karides
With a focus on Latin America, Rodriguez represents multinational companies in the energy, infrastructure, biotech, and financial sectors in international arbitration and litigation. He has been widely recognized for his representation of clients in investor-state disputes before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICC) and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR). Rodriguez also serves as an arbitrator. Rodriguez will serve as the firm’s vice chair for International Arbitration in the U.S.
Millor’s practice focuses on cross-border commercial disputes and international litigation and arbitration, as well as class action, real estate, financial sector, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) matters. She has extensive experience representing Latin American and Spanish-speaking clients in wide-ranging U.S. based litigation and arbitrations. Millor regularly manages large multi-million dollar complex commercial litigation and arbitration cases for her clients, and will be focusing primarily on U.S.-based international arbitrations and litigations.
Guerrero-Rocca focuses on commercial and investment-arbitration, international litigation, and investment-protection. He has represented claimants in investment-arbitration proceedings in the mining, coffee, infrastructure, technology, poultry, hospitality, real estate, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals industries. He has also represented a sovereign state in a multimillion-dollar arbitration claim in the mining sector, and South American companies in international commercial arbitration disputes in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Guerrero-Rocca will be focusing primarily on investor-state arbitration and LatAm based International commercial arbitration.
“We have made significant investments in our litigation and international arbitration practices to bring on top-tier talent - like Francisco, Sandra and Gilberto - who excel at providing gold star counsel to clients on complex matters, which has strengthened our position as a global disputes leader,” said Janet Kwuon, global co-chair of Reed Smith’s Global Commercial Disputes practice. “Francisco, Sandra and Gilberto are exceptional litigators with sterling reputations in both the U.S. and throughout Latin America and we are absolutely thrilled to welcome them to our team in Miami.”
Reed Smith’s international arbitration practice is truly global. With offices in the world’s leading arbitral seats, including London, Paris, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Miami, and Houston, the practice is strongly positioned to represent clients in international business disputes. Internationally recognized for the depth and strength of its experience and expertise, the practice was recently included in the elite GAR 30 2022, Global Arbitration Review’s list of the world’s top 30 leading international arbitration practices, for the fourth consecutive year.
“Over the past several years, we have deliberately built a world-class international arbitration practice via strategic, high-impact hires like that of Francisco, Sandra and Gilberto,” said Peter Rosher, global chair of Reed Smith’s International Arbitration practice. “The intentionality of our approach has been an undisputed success, as evidenced by the number of clients who turn to us as counsel on high-risk investor-state disputes and commercial and investment arbitrations, the attraction we have drawn from top flight lawyers who are driven by advising clients on those matters, and our performance in the GAR 30 rankings year over year.”
“Our decision to join Reed Smith was predicated on the opportunity to join a firm with a seasoned and impressive group of disputes lawyers, a broad global platform, and a strong reputation in Latin America,” said Rodriguez and Millor in a joint statement. “Reed Smith allows us to serve our clients from a global platform, and we bring to the firm extensive experience practicing in an area of the law that is a growth sector for the firm. We are very excited to see what the future holds.”
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