Paul Hastings' Ex-Managing Partner in Brazil Heads to Shell-Mitsubishi Hitachi Energy Project
Roberta Bassegio, legal director of Marlim Azul.
The former chair of Paul Hastings’ office in Sao Paulo has walked away from the firm to take an in-house position with Marlim Azul Energia, a partnership between Shell and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems that is developing a power plant in Rio de Janeiro.
Roberta Bassegio began her new role as legal director of Marlim Azul earlier this month, according to her LinkedIn profile. She had served as Paul Hastings’ Brazil-based managing partner since late 2015 and was appointed chair of the firm’s Sao Paulo office when it opened in April 2016. She said at the time that Brazil was “ripe with opportunities.”
“I joined Paul Hastings from a leading Brazilian law firm because of Paul Hastings’ reputation as one of the elite Latin America-focused firms and my conviction—and now experience—that we have the right mix of practice strengths and client connections to take Paul Hastings’ activities in Brazil to the next level with this office opening,” she added.
Bassegio arrived at Paul Hastings after having served for 17 years as a partner at Veirano Advogados, one of the largest law firms in Brazil. Earlier in her career, she spent a year as an international associate at Allen & Overy.
Attempts to speak with Bassegio on Thursday were not immediately successful. She is a 2009 graduate of Columbia Law School and specializes in project development and finance, energy, infrastructure and banking.
Marlim Azul is a $700 million “groundbreaking” energy project that will use natural gas from Brazil’s offshore pre-salt deposits to generate electricity, according to Shell. The plant, which is expected to be operational by January 2022, will be an “efficient way to monetize the natural gas that will be produced by pre-salt fields," Shell Brazil president Andre Araujo said in a prepared statement.
Alex Aoki, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems South America has trumpeted the project as a “major victory for our South American division, in an incredibly competitive market” that will represent a “change in power for the Brazilian grid.”
Read More:
New Observ Institute to Help Fight Corruption in Latin America
How to Build a Successful Foreign Legal Department From Scratch
New Privacy Regulations Aiding, and Stunting, Brazil's Legal Tech Market
