Morrison Foerster’s Latin America Desk Continues to be Recognized as Market Leader

Morrison Foerster’s cross-disciplinary Latin America Desk has recently been named a market leader by several publications, including The Legal 500 Latin America, Latin Lawyer 250, Chambers Latin America, and Latinvex.

The Legal 500 Latin America has included four of MoFo’s Latin America-focused practices in its newly released 2025 edition. Once again, the publication named MoFo’s Miami office a “Tier One” firm in the City Focus ­– Miami category. And three practice areas – Compliance and Investigations, Corporate and M&A, and Projects and Energy – received recognition. The rankings are based on thousands of interviews with lawyers and clients using qualitative and quantitative analysis. 

Latin Lawyer 250 has recognized MoFo as Highly Recommended in four categories: Anti-corruption Investigations and Compliance, Banking & Finance, Corporate and M&A, and Private Equity. Latin Lawyer 250 provides an annual review of the legal marketplace across multiple Latin American jurisdictions, with analysis of the Latin American practices of international law firms. Firms are selected for inclusion based on extensive research and recommendations from peer firms and clients.

MoFo has also earned a new ranking from Chambers Latin America for Corporate Crime & Investigations: International Counsel. This latest distinction serves as a testament to MoFo’s ever-growing reputation and presence across the Latin American region. “The law firm demonstrates significant experience handling corporate crime and investigations matters in key Latin American jurisdictions, including Argentina and Colombia,” stated Chambers.

In addition, the publications recognized individual members of the team for their work. Randy Bullard and Ruti Smithline, as the co-chairs of the firm’s Latin America Desk, were once again recognized in the latest edition of Chambers Latin America. Randy has been recognized as a top practitioner for Corporate and M&A, while Ruti has been listed as a leading counsel for Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Crime. Similarly, Latinvex has named Randy and Ruti to its annual list of Latin America’s Top 100 Lawyers, the fourth consecutive year the pair have been highlighted. Latinvex also named Ruti and Ann Lilenthal to its 2024 list of Latin America’s Top 100 Female Lawyers. The Legal 500 Latin America named Ruti “Leading Partner” for Compliance and Investigations and highlighted Ludovica Gardani as a “Leading Associate” for Corporate and M&A.

Randy, as managing partner of MoFo’s Miami office, represents multinational clients in connection with cross-border mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and other and financing transactions throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. Randy’s mergers and acquisitions work has focused on international cross-border mergers and acquisitions across a broad range of sectors, including financial services, technology and telecommunications, media, entertainment, agriculture, manufacturing, and food and beverage.

Ruti, as co-chair of MoFo’s Investigations + White Collar Defense Group, focuses her practice on complex litigation with an emphasis on white-collar criminal defense, SEC enforcement, and corporate internal investigations. As a native Spanish speaker who was born and raised in Colombia, she regularly conducts government-facing and internal investigations throughout Latin America and proactively helps clients with their compliance needs, including undertaking risk assessments, developing compliance programs, and providing training.

MoFo’s Latin America Desk offers clients global advice with a local perspective, with lawyers at all levels who are native or fluent speakers of Spanish and Portuguese and familiar with local laws and business cultures. Having worked in all major markets in Latin America for decades, MoFo is familiar with the business, economic, and regulatory environments of the region, with capabilities including corporate, investigations and anti‑corruption, economic sanctions, agency and project finance, financial transactions, privacy, and business restructuring and insolvency matters, among others.