Pedro Urdaneta

Pedro Urdaneta is the current President of Venecápital, the Venezuelan Private Capital Association (www.venecapital.org).

Mr. Urdaneta is a leading M&A and Finance lawyer in Venezuela, who is recognized for his cross-border transactions work. For 30+ years, Mr. Urdaneta has been committed to servicing the complex needs of large multinationals, financial institutions and private capital investors doing business in Venezuela, and of Venezuelan companies and families doing business abroad.

Mr. Urdaneta is consistently ranked as a top-tier M&A and Banking and Finance practitioner by peer-review organizations, including Chambers Global; Chambers Latin America; The Legal 500 Latin America, Best Lawyers Venezuela, the Latin America Corporate Counsel Association (LACCA Approved), Latin Lawyer 250, Who's Who Legal (Foreign Investment Control / M&A), and The M&A Powerlist: Latin America. Chambers Global sources say that Mr. Urdaneta "is a highly experienced lawyer and specializes in assisting with corporate restructuring, joint venture agreements and project finance" and a lawyer who "... can provide legal solutions to complex problems and provides innovative suggestions and plans." Chambers Latin America quotes clients' praise for Mr. Urdaneta as “… an innovative and strategy-oriented lawyer who understands our business.”

His practice focuses on corporate and financial transactions in a broad range of industry sectors, including cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, investments, divestitures, joint ventures and carve-out transactions; project development and finance; corporate and asset-backed financings; and other complex matters.

Mr. Urdaneta is admitted to practice in Venezuela, New York, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has been Co-Chair and Vice-Chair of the ABA Section of International Law, Latin America and Caribbean Committee, and a member of the Cornell Law School Advisory Council.

Mr. Urdaneta is a Senior Partner, co-Head of Corporate/M&A, and co-Head of Banking & Finance at LEĜA Abogados, the largest full-service law firm in Venezuela. Prior to merging his firm in 2019, Mr. Urdaneta was a founding Partner and Head of Corporate/M&A at Imery Urdaneta Calleja Itriago & Flamarique, S.C. He began his career as a Foreign Attorney at Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC.