New York, March 31, 2011.  ARIFA continues to receive top honors for its outstanding cross-border work, as International Financial Law Review awarded the firm the 2011 Americas Award for Central America Law Firm of the Year. This is the third successive selection for ARIFA, following the firm's awards in 2010 and 2009. The IFLR awards recognize those law firms specializing in the financial markets who demonstrated particular innovation and excellence in financial law in 2010. ARIFA is the only Panamanian law firm that has been awarded this distinction. 

In selecting winners for its prestigious award, the editorial committee of the International Financial Law Review takes into account the track record of international transactions over the past year, plus in-depth interviews with corporate clients, private practice lawyers, in-house counsels, financing specialists and leading investment bankers in the region. The process includes an analysis of the most innovative international finance deals. Last year, ARIFA lawyers were engaged in closing many significant local and international M&A, debt and project finance transactions.  It was the consistent creativity that applied by our team to resolve these issues that earned us this latest distinction.

ARIFA was the only Panamanian firm working on two IFLR Americas-nominated Deals of the Year matters:

• Debt and Equity-Linked Deal of the Year, in connection with Bladex Chilean bond issue.
• Securitization and Structured Finance Deal of the Year, in connection with Lancer Finance Petrobas drillship structured financing.

ARIFA partner Ricardo M Arango and senior associates Rodrigo Cardoze and Julianne Canavaggio received this award on behalf of the firm at the gala ceremony that gathered the best international lawyers in the Americas at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

We are pleased to be honored with this award. It demonstrates ARIFA’s continued responsiveness to our clients' changing needs in challenging and dynamic global economic environments.

About IFLR
International Financial Law Review (IFLR) is the world's leading monthly magazine for in-house counsel and practitioners in the financial markets.  IFLR is part of the prestigious Euromoney Legal Media Group, with offices in London, Hong Kong and New York.