Hughes Hubbard Adds Two New Attorneys to Latin America Practice
Hughes Hubbard & Reed announced that it has added to its Latin America practice Diego Durán de la Vega as partner and James K. Alford as counsel.
Durán joins from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Alford joins from Stinson. Durán will be based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, while working with members of the Latin America practice group throughout the firm; Alford will divide his time between Washington, D.C. and Miami.
Earlier this year, international disputes lawyer Luis O’Naghten joined the Miami office and serves as chair of Latin American Disputes; Durán will now serve as co-chair.
Three years ago, the firm entered a strategic cooperation agreement with Saud Advogados, a Brazilian law firm based in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, Hughes Hubbard also added as partner Ruben Diaz, the former general counsel of Grupo Pellas, a conglomerate of financial, industrial and commercial companies based primarily in Central America, who now serves as co-chair of the Latin America practice.
In a release, the firm said Durán’s practice focuses on international disputes, including white-collar defense matters, internal investigations, commercial litigation, and international arbitration cases. He mainly advises and represents non-U.S. clients in U.S. litigation, and U.S. clients that are facing litigation abroad.
Durán has represented government agencies, international corporations and high-profile individuals. He has argued cases before U.S. courts and all levels of the Mexican judiciary, including the Mexican Supreme Court, and participated in cases before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and its Court of Justice.
The firm said Durán is also experienced in Mexican criminal and constitutional law. Prior to Hughes Hubbard and Quinn Emanuel, he was a defense lawyer at one of the top criminal law firms in Mexico, where he defended and helped prosecute dozens of cases.
Durán holds Master’s Degrees from University of Pennsylvania School of Law and Universidad Panamericana; a Wharton Business and Law Certificate from University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton Business School; and a Juris Doctorate from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).
For more than 30 years, Alford has assisted U.S. and foreign private and public sector clients to design, develop, finance, and implement clean and renewable energy and infrastructure projects, corporate operations and transactions worldwide, with a particular focus on Central and Latin America and Mexico.
He also advises clients on overseas market entry strategies and the legal structures to achieve them, from teaming arrangements and strategic alliances to public-private partnerships, equity joint ventures and stand-alone operations.
As part of his project finance practice, Alford advises private and public sponsors of international turn-key energy and infrastructure projects on the acquisition of feasibility funds, projects and structured financing, political risk insurance, guarantees, and other financing enhancements from private sources and Washington-based U.S. and multilateral agencies, including the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and the Inter-American Investment Corporation.
Alford holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University, and a Juris Doctorate from New England School of Law. He was named by Latin America as one of the top 100 lawyers in North America with respect to his Latin America practice, and has been recognized by Latin 250 publication as one of the leading business lawyers in Latin America.
