K&L Gates LLP today opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil, the firm’s first in South America and 39th worldwide. Leading the launch of the office are New York finance partner Marc J. Veilleux and Washington, D.C./London corporate and securities partner Alan J. Berkeley (bios follow release). The São Paulo office is licensed as a foreign legal consultancy, as required by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB).

“Through the growth and diversification of its robust economy, Brazil has been propelled to the forefront of the 21st century marketplace for legal services. Our São Paulo office is a notable and distinguished addition to our global client offering,” commented K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter J. Kalis.

With distinct capabilities in the areas of international finance and capital markets, investment management, construction and project development, intellectual property, tax, and arbitration, K&L Gates’ São Paulo office will allow the firm to guide clients in establishing, developing, and managing their operations in Brazil, while expanding the firm’s long-established work for major Brazilian and international industrial and financial services clients around the world. The São Paulo office and its clients will benefit from the resources of a fully integrated global law firm and especially from the firm’s worldwide energy, infrastructure and resources (EIR) and Asia-based business and investment practices.

“Brazil is a dynamic and growing economy, home to many of Latin America’s most significant companies, its largest stock market, and in recent years, its most ambitious infrastructure projects,” stated Veilleux. “Many of our clients have identified Brazil as central to their global operations and strategy and we fully expect the country to be a continued recipient of significant inbound investment. We also believe that the trend of Brazilian companies investing abroad will only continue to accelerate in future years. We are excited that our São Paulo office will allow us to better serve our clients in this important economy and throughout Latin America.”

With the addition of an office in Brazil, K&L Gates now serves clients through offices in each of the world’s top seven economies as well as a variety of other leading commercial and financial centers and key capital cities. As the largest such center in Latin America and the seventh largest city in the world, São Paulo represents a particularly strategic entry into the Southern Hemisphere for K&L Gates.

Marc J. Veilleux focuses his practice on international finance, infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions, technology outsourcings, and other strategic alliances. He regularly counsels Brazilian and other Latin American financial institutions and companies on such matters as structured trade and commodity financings, asset-based loans, and project financings, as well as debt capital markets offerings.

A corporate and securities regulatory lawyer, Alan J. Berkeley has, for more than four decades, counseled corporations and their managements and Boards of Directors on both commercial and transformative matters (including mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions for privately-held and public companies), crisis response, and regulatory, compliance and enforcement matters before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other securities regulatory bodies. A frequent lecturer on corporate and securities law, Berkeley has previously served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown and George Washington law schools, and for many years he has been primary outside counsel to the Partners of the Americas, a bilateral non-governmental organization founded in 1964 as a private ancillary to President Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress” and which has extensive programs in Brazil and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.