José Vicente Zapata is an attorney in Holland & Knight’s Bogotá office and has more than 30 years of experience in the natural resources sector. He focuses his practice on corporate, contractual and commercial matters, with a strong focus in spin-offs, mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Zapata co-chairs the firm’s Venezuela Focus Team, a group of partners who assists clients with interests in the country.
Mr. Zapata has led regulatory matters for many years on the environment, energy and natural resources. He has experience with corporate compliance matters, including the definition of ethics programs, Sistema de Autocontrol y Gestión del Riesgo Integral de Lavado de Activos y Financiación del Terrorismo (SAGRILAFT) and knowledge management for effective regulatory compliance, as well as liability cases for contractual and non-contractual damages.
Mr. Zapata’s clients include electric, oil, gas, mining, agrochemical and industrial companies, and he advises them on the structuring of foreign investment transactions, corporate reorganizations, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well as matters of environmental liability and judicial proceedings such as class actions and international claims.
Throughout his career, Mr. Zapata has represented clients in many of the largest transactions made in Colombia to date in the energy, mining, oil and gas sectors, and assisted a range of companies in entering the energy market, obtaining mining and oil and gas concessions and structuring the contractual arrangements for such purposes. He negotiates share purchase and sale agreements, foreign direct investment management, asset purchase and sale agreements (including commercial establishments), joint operating agreements, farm-in and farm-outs, distribution, franchising and agency agreements, collaboration agreements, real estate regulatory mechanisms, structuring of real estate projects, authorizations and operating permits. More recently, Mr. Zapata is active in renewable energy projects and has led wind farm, solar ventures and energy storage solutions as well as hydrogen and geothermal regulatory assessments, including zoning analysis, management of protected and exclusion zones and areas, and analysis of legal options for land use definition. Mr. Zapata also participates in key financing and structuring of transactions in these sectors, with particular attention on environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements.
In addition, Mr. Zapata has significant experience in critical environmental liability cases and class action litigation in Colombia. Among them are complex cases where communities and companies discuss their corresponding rights, including prior consultation events, controlled substances and environmental authorizations, permits and licenses.
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 is a regular speaker at conferences in Latin America and has published multiple books and articles on matters of sustainable development, oil and gas, renewable energy, hydrocarbons, climate change and renewable energies. In addition, he has served on various boards of directors, headed numerous successful companies and 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.
