Overview

When Baker & McKenzie began opening offices in Latin America 55 years ago, it was a very different world. Most of the firm’s work at the time centred on helping US companies set up subsidiaries in countries like Venezuela.

The firm later helped clients establish manufacturing plants in Mexico during that country’s industrialisation boom in the 1960s and guided investors through strict foreign investment regulation throughout the region; then went on to benefit from the liberalisation of trade and investment in Latin America during the 1980s, the privatisation boom of the ‘90s and the wave of new investment coming from Asia and the Middle East that continues today.

Yet for years, competitors asked why the firm was in Latin America – a region seemingly plagued by political unrest, high inflation, poverty, inadequate infrastructure and protective trade laws. Raymundo Enriquez, chairman of Baker & McKenzie’s Latin America regional counsel, explains why no-one asks that question any more.