Key attorneys from maritime law firm Fowler Rodriguez—including trial lawyer George Fowler III—have joined Jones Walker’s New Orleans, Houston and Miami offices.
Fowler, Edward LeBreton III, Luis Llamas, Luis Enrique Cuervo, Michael McCoy, Santiago Padilla, Mark Rich and Juan Serrallés IV joined as partners; Michael Rosen, special counsel; and Caroline Sanches and Lauren Kurtz, associates.
Jones Walker Managing Partner Bill Hines says the expansion is a “core piece of our growth strategy and is a testament to the service platform we’ve built to serve our clients domestically and internationally.”
Both Jones Walker LLP and Fowler Rodriguez began in and have deep connections to the New Orleans community, as well as to Latin America via their mutual offices in Miami. The idea of the two storied law firms joining forces began with the encouragement of one of the firms’ shared clients, Jose Suquet, the chairman, president and CEO at Pan-American Life Insurance Group.
Suquet says Fowler’s team has helped Pan-American Life navigate Latin America, while the Jones Walker law firm represents the company on domestic mergers and acquisitions and Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, matters.
The group of attorneys collectively represent domestic and multinational companies in a variety of industries, including maritime, energy, and insurance. The team counsels clients throughout the United States and Latin America in a wide range of commercial litigation, tax matters and complex transactions involving project development and finance, government privatization, immigration, energy and infrastructure, and mergers and acquisitions.
“Our firm has worked for decades to support our clients in the U.S., and in Latin America and it was a natural next step for us to join a well-respected firm with multiple practice areas that will help us continue to meet the growing needs of the clients we serve,” Fowler says of the team’s move to Jones Walker.
“For more than 20 years, we have successfully relied on George Fowler’s firm to handle many of our complex legal matters,” said Arnaldo Perez, senior vice president and general counsel of Carnival Corporation. “We look forward to the expanded capabilities of this union.”
