María Margarita Lorduy

Practice Areas

Environment and Natural Resources; Energy; Mining; Infrastructure and PPP

Career

María Margarita is Director in the Firm's Environmental Area. She has advised on environmental, commercial, regulatory law companies in the energy, oil, gas, mining, industrial, agrochemical, public services, and infrastructure sectors. She has also been an advisor on ethnic communities, prior consultation processes, public hearings, and popular consultations. She has led environmental due diligence processes in some of the most important transactions in Colombia and has participated in the financing of the main road, port, and airport infrastructure projects.

María Margarita has extensive experience in environmental sanctioning processes, design of litigious legal strategies and licensing, modification, and assignment of environmental licenses. She has experience in advising clients regarding the regulation of environmental services contracts.

Languages Spoken

English; Spanish

Work Highlights

María Margarita is Director in the Firm's Environmental Area. She has advised on environmental, commercial, regulatory law companies in the energy, oil, gas, mining, industrial, agrochemical, public services, and infrastructure sectors. She has also been an advisor on ethnic communities, prior consultation processes, public hearings, and popular consultations. She has led environmental due diligence processes in some of the most important transactions in Colombia and has participated in the financing of the main road, port, and airport infrastructure projects.

María Margarita has extensive experience in environmental sanctioning processes, design of litigious legal strategies and licensing, modification, and assignment of environmental licenses. She has experience in advising clients regarding the regulation of environmental services contracts.

Experience

Infrastructure

Metro de Bogotá: Advising a consortium on the tender process of the Bogota Metro, a US$4.5 billion project, as well as providing legal advice on different aspects of the concession agreement to be executed by the concessionaire.

Regiotram: Advising a consortium on the tender process of the Regiotram, a US$1 billion project, as well as providing legal advice on different aspects of the concession agreement to be executed by the concessionaire, and preparing the Head of Terms for the EPC contract, the interface contract and the O&M contract.

Oil and Gas

ONGC: Acting as local counsel regarding environmental matters related to its exploring and exploiting activities. Providing legal advice and designing a legal strategy in ONGC’s administrative sanctioning proceeding.

Gran Tierra: Providing legal advice regarding environmental matters such as woodcutting ban and archeological procedures. Also acted as local counsel on the acquisition of oil and gas assets in Colombia.

Mining

Confidential: Advising through the due diligence on the environmental and social aspects for the purchase of a mining company.

Minera Cobre: Conducting a legal and procedural assessment of a subtraction of areas of forest reserve before the Ministry of Environmental and Sustainable Development.

CI Carbocoque S.A.: Advising on a Due Diligence process on the environmental and social aspects of four mining projects for the sale of certain shares.

Cannabis

Avicanna: Advising on the process to determine the presence of ethnic communities and their collective territories for the drafting of the prospectus and the issuance of legal opinions requested by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Organto Foods Inc: Providing legal advice on the procedures before the authorities regarding overlapping with protected areas.

Experience on prior consultation

Confidential client: Advising an important port company on environmental matters regarding the environmental and social obligations and support of prior consultation processes*.

CCX S.A.: Acting as legal counsel on all environmental and prior consultation matters for their train, mine and port.

Other sectors

Sacyr Concesiones Colombia S.A.S.: Provided legal advice to Sacyr regarding the regulatory framework for the thermal treatment of solid waste in Bogotá D.C., specifically related to three main areas: (i) investment and construction of facilities to produce energy derived from solid waste treatment, (ii) remuneration for the production of energy derived from solid waste treatment, and (iii) applicable environmental legal framework and requirements for obtaining an environmental license for a project to generate energy from biomass sources.

Confidential client: Provided legal advice on all environmental matters, such as the design of the legal defense strategy before the local environmental authority in an environmental sanctioning procedure. We also drafted legal environmental responses to the authority requests. We have advised the client on agreements to manage and reuse scrap and determine the feasibility of reusing wastewaters generated in the company’s operation.

Education

Awards