Santiago Nishizawa was born in Bolivia (1962). He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, and holds an LLM from Chuo University, Tokyo, and an LLM from Columbia Law School, New York. He practised as a foreign associate of O’Melveny & Myers LLP in its New York Office.
Santiago is senior partner of the firm, specialist in the Corporate, banking and natural resources practices. His practice focuses in M&A, greenfield projects, structuring of loans, negotiation and drafting of different kinds of contracts. He is an arbitrator in the Centre of Conciliation and Arbitration of the National Chamber of Commerce, and regularly participates as a member of arbitral tribunals that deal with relevant cases in Bolivia. He also counsels clients and participates as an expert in Bolivian law in diverse international arbitrations.
He speaks Spanish, English and Japanese.
BAQSN is a full service firm, resulting from the merger of two of the most traditional firms in Bolivia, process that was successfully completed in 2018. The firm is integrated by a strong team of lawyers with broad experience in the Bolivian legal market, all of them specialized in the main areas of the law and trained in some of the most prestigious academic institutions, locally or abroad, corresponding in Spanish, English, German, Portuguese, French, Italian and Japanese.
With a tradition of commitment with the professional excellency and the highest ethical principles, the firm has one of the most broad and solid structures in the Bolivian legal market, forming a team capable of providing comprehensive legal services of the highest quality and specialty to its clients.
BAQSN provides specialized professional services in both traditional areas of the Law, such as civil, corporate and commercial law, tax, mining, energy, hydrocarbons and labor, as well as in other specific areas of regulated activities in financial and banking matters, telecommunications, industrial activities, construction, sales and distribution, public and state procurement, unfair intellectual property, antitrust and consumer protection standards, and also provides advise on dispute resolution with experts in arbitration, mediation and conciliation.
Partners of BAQSN have participated over time in some of the most important investment and development projects in Bolivia, from corporate, tax and labor structuring, national and international contractual relationships, of private or public nature, economic and financial operations, infrastructure projects and many others, to the advice in corporate management and control bodies. The members have also participated in the drafting of different legal bodies, such as the Commercial Code, the Central Bank Law, the Securities Market Law, the new Mining Law, the Investments Law, the Conciliation and Arbitration Law, and several laws and regulations of sectoral regulation.
The firm offers legal services at national and international levels, with offices in the cities of La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra and has the necessary virtual structure to render services remotely in an agile and efficient manner. The also firm renders pro bono services, being a founding member of Fundacion Pro Bono Bolivia.
BAQSN has been qualified and recognized by various important international legal directories, such as Chambers & Partners, IFLR 1000, Latin Lawyer 250, The Legal 500 Latin America, in all cases as a leading firm or located in the main positions. Likewise, members of the firm are qualified in high categories of the aforementioned legal directories.
Bolivia
