Skadden to Open Sao Paulo Office

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is opening a Sao Paulo office in the coming three months. The group, to be headed by partner Jonathan Bisgaier, will focus on cross border transactions, M&A, corporate finance, and private equity, among other things. “We’ve had a dedicated practice group focused on Brazil for almost 20 years,” Paul Schnell, senior partner and head of LatAm practice at the firm, tells LatinFinance. Until now, however, that group has been based in New York. “Sao Paulo has in recent years developed into a very stable, vibrant, increasingly important financial center so we thought we could better serve our clients by being there”, he adds. Skadden has worked on a number of large M&A operations such as the sale of Pactual to UBS, the merger of Santelisa and Vale do Rosario, and the Bovespa’s IPO.