Bio

Jose Zapata is a partner in Holland & Knight's Bogota office with more than 25 years of experience in the natural resources sector. He focuses his practice on corporate and commercial matters with an emphasis on the environment, energy and natural resources, regulatory and contractual issues, as well as in corporate compliance and liability cases, including FCPA. Mr. Zapata co-chairs the firm's Venezuela Focus Team, a group of partners who assists clients with interests in the country. Mr. Zapata represents electric, oil, gas, mining, agrochemical and industrial companies. In addition, he regularly advises clients in the structuring of foreign investment transactions, corporate reorganizations, and mergers and acquisitions as well as matters of environmental liability and judicial proceedings such as class action and international claims. Throughout his career, Mr. Zapata has served on various boards of directors and has headed numerous successful companies. He has represented clients in many of the largest transactions made in Colombia to date in the energy, mining, oil and gas sectors, in addition to assisting a range of companies in entering the energy market, obtaining mining and oil and gas concessions and structuring the contractual arrangements for such purposes. More recently, Mr. Zapata has been very active in renewable energy projects, and has led both wind farm and solar ventures. Mr. Zapata has also participated actively in key financing and structuring of transactions in these sectors. Mr. Zapata has participated in critical environmental liability cases and class action litigation in Colombia. Of particular importance is his participation in complex cases where communities and companies discuss their corresponding rights and in prior public consultations, and environmental permits and authorizations. Mr. Zapata has acted as co-counsel in major international commercial and investor-state arbitrations, involving sensitive international judicial matters of Colombian interest under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rules. These matters focus in energy and natural resources concerning disputes across the oil and gas, electricity, infrastructure and mining sectors. Beyond his law practice, Mr. Zapata has served as professor of corporate responsibility, environmental liability and sustainable development at Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, Universidad de Los Andes and Universidad Externado de Colombia.