Mary Rose Brusewitz concentrates her practice on Latin American transactions - most recently in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Perú and Venezuela - as well as Spain and Portugal. Ms. Brusewitz represents major Latin American companies as well as U.S., European, and Asian entities doing business in Latin America and elsewhere.  Because of her years of experience in the Latin American region, she has developed invaluable expertise in issues such as evaluating convertibility tax regimes, legal and regulatory systems and economic and cultural elements relevant to transactions.

Mary Rose Brusewitz is active in microfinancing.  She regularly represents microfinance investment vehicles ("MIVs") in activities including obtaining financing for their activities in lending to microfinance institutions ("MFIs"), both regulated and unregulated.  This work includes structuring and forming MIVs as funds, structuring and documenting securitizations to raise financing, preparing and negotiating financing documents involving commercial and governmental/multilateral funding sources and securities issuances, assisting MIVs in connection with diligence activities by investors and rating processes, as well as other activities.  She supports MIVs in constructing appropriate strategies create and maintain responsible legal, compliance and other standards, while not overburdening both MIVs and MFIs administratively and financially with compliance responsibilities.   Ms. Brusewitz assists MIVs with establishing and managing their relationships with investors and MFIs.  She is active in assisting them with due diligence processes, the preparation, negotiation, implementation, administration and monitoring of loan documentation and with managing and protecting their interests in stressed situations.  Ms. Brusewitz has represented individual lenders and investors and groups of investors in workouts, restructurings, renegotiations and recapitalizations of both regulated and unregulated MFIs.  She has deep experience working with lenders and borrowers/debtors to create effective strategies to maximize legal and practical rights and protections.  In stressed situations, workouts and other similar circumstances, she negotiates, structures and prepares standstill, intercreditor, debt restructuring, debt conversion and other consensual documentation involving complex groups of stakeholders, often with very different philosophies, ranging from relatively philanthropic to more profit-oriented. She is skilled at creating and managing transparent and constructive communications processes with constituencies with varying interests and liaising effectively with other legal counsel in stressed situations.  She is also very experienced at managing insolvencies, foreclosures and other similar proceedings in multiple jurisdictions.  She is principal outside legal counsel to MFX, a US-based business with a unique structure and constituency of investors that provides affordable hedging products to players in the microfinance world.  She represented them in their formation and capitalization, as well.  Ms. Brusewitz has been active in projects evaluating legal schemes applicable to the microfinance industry throughout the world.  Ms. Brusewitz is active in IAMFI and regularly speaks and writes about microfinancing and related topics at conferences and meetings in the US and elsewhere, including at the Microfinance Club of New York.  Currently, she is active in the IAMFI default project.

Mary Rose Brusewitz regularly works in the area of renewable energy and assists clients in registering, selling or otherwise monetizing carbon credits. She works together with environmental and other partners at the firm in this rapidly-changing area, in order to optimize the prices received for credits, to determine the best structure and market in which to sell carbon credits, and to retain consultants to help with the strategy to verify and certify or register credits. She has been helping a client with a wind farm in a Central American country to negotiate a Voluntary Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreement for the sale of Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) expected to be generated by the project. She has been working for a number of years with consulting firms on projects involving Certified Emissions Reductions ("CERs") from projects in countries such as India and Trinidad and Tobago.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

• Participated in project financing, acquisition and disposition and restructuring transactions, including offshore oil field development and gas and oil pipeline deals and owner projects, including thermal, hydro and wind projects and advising on proposed energy policy legislation.
• Participated in securitization of numerous asset types, including tax revenues, trade receivables, consumer automobile loans, supplier credits and other financial assets.  She has  contributed to structured financing projects, such as U.S. commercial paper programs and cross-border lease financings of large assets, such as offshore oil rigs and platforms.
• Represented funds and incubators investing in start-up Internet, technology, and media-related ventures and mature companies in various sectors.  She has also represented funds, incubators, and start-up ventures in various Latin American countries in connection with receiving investments from foreign and local investors.
• Represented lenders, underwriters, issuers and borrowers in international capital markets offerings, private placements, syndicated bank financings and trade financings.
• Represented lenders, bondholders, equity investors and entities in reorganization in restructuring transactions involving publicly-held and privately-placed bonds and securitization securities, secure and unsecured bank financings and project financings.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Speaker, Opportunities and Benefits of a Low Carbon Economy – The Case of Mexico, New York, New York, July 15, 2010

Panelist, Nicaragua in Crisis: Lessons Learned for the Microfinance Industry, New York, New York, April 7, 2010

Panelist, A Candid Dialogue Between Lenders and MFIs on New Lending Standards, New York, New York, March 24, 2010

Co-Presenter, Climate Change Regulation Risks Opportunities and Mitigation Strategies, Houston, Texas, January 27, 2010 - PDF

Co-author, Cross-border jurisdiction of US bankruptcy law, Global Financial Crisis:  Navigating and Understanding the Legal and Regulatory Aspects, 2009 Globe Business Publishing Ltd

Presenter, Transforming Risk into Opportunity: Emerging Laws; Basics of Carbon Credits, Washington, D.C., Nokia Conference, November 10, 2009

Co-Presenter, Legal Issues in Carbon Auditing and GHG Mitigation / Offsets, Dallas, Texas, July 1, 2009 - PDF

Moderator, Panel on Retail Microfinancing, Microfinance Club of New York, April 2009

Guest Comment, Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Energy Advisor, December 22-26, 2008

SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Named in the 2009 and 2010 editions of The International Who's Who of Oil & Gas Lawyers

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Admitted, New York
• American Bar Association
• Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• International Bar Association
• New York State Bar Association

EDUCATION

University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D. 1982

University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., summa cum laude, 1979

LANGUAGES

Portuguese and Spanish