Beveridge & Diamond welcomes Miriam Mazza, former in-house legal manager, to our Washington, DC, office as a Brazilian Lawyer-in-Residence in our Washington, DC, office, the latest example of innovation from our leading Latin American practice group.

Prior to joining B&D, Miriam worked for six years as an in-house legal manager with the Brazilian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc in Rio de Janeiro, where she coordinated environmental legal services and provided transactional and crisis legal advice. In this capacity, she served as the lead environmental attorney supporting the formation of Raízen Energia S.A., a JV between Royal Dutch Shell and Brazilian biofuel major Cosan S.A., the third largest Brazilian energy company by revenue and the fifth largest in Brazil.

“Our Latin American practice regularly receives acknowledgment as a leader in helping clients address environmental, product regulatory, supply chain, and human rights issues throughout Latin America,” stated Maddie Boyer, chair of the firm’s Latin American practice and four-time Latinvex leading lawyer. “Miriam’s arrival represents another unique way we craft innovative responses to U.S. and multinational business challenges in the region.”

Miriam has advised clients on risk management and allocation of environmental liabilities in domestic and cross-border transactions, including equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, infrastructure projects, and financing transactions. Her Brazilian practice also included environmental litigation, risk assessment, and corporate sustainability programs, as well as environmental, chemical, and product liability regulation.

Her experience in complex international environmental matters includes:

• Assisting with due diligence on hydroelectric plants, thermoelectric stations, transmission lines, mines, and chemical facilities.
• Providing legal support in the environmental licensing of major infrastructure projects.
• Developing renewable energy ventures.
• Managing contaminated properties.

Her experience in managing environmental crises includes:

• Representing an Anglo-Australian mining company in its Brazilian JV’s dam collapse accident.
• Coordinating the legal response to a week-long fire that burned through a fuel and chemicals storage facility near the Port of Santos in April 2014.
• Managing administrative, criminal and toxic tort litigation related to deactivated crop protection chemical’s facilities from the Brazilian subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell Plc in São Paulo.