María José Henríquez promoted to partnership at Morales & Besa
Morales & Besa announced the promotion of María José Henríquez to partnership at the firm effective January 2020. Her appointment follows a distinguished legal career of over a decade in competition and antitrust matters, both in government and as a private practitioner.
María José joined Morales & Besa as a senior associate in 2016 bringing with her a wealth of experience including as in-house lawyer at the Fiscalía Nacional Económica (FNE), the Chilean competition law enforcement agency, where she was appointed Head of the Anti-Cartel Unit. Under her tenure, the agency launched and successfully pursued several high-profile investigations involving cartelisation by key business companies in the tissue paper products market, supermarkets and shipping industries. She was also involved in the investigation of cartel conducts in in public procurement. Prior to her work at the FNE, María José was an associate at Carey y Cía.
“The expansion, regulatory changes and developments in the practice of antitrust law have created new paradigms and exigencies to our antitrust, M&A and corporate advisory work at the firm and María José has been instrumental to our success owing to her outstanding analytical skills, execution capabilities and teamwork”, said Guillermo Morales, founding partner of the firm. Gonzalo Cordero, partner in the area of litigation and arbitration, who until now led the department with Maria José, added “I know her work closely and I have witnessed her leadership and the key role she has played in complex and large-scale operations. She is an excellent lawyer, with a deep knowledge of her practice area, broad professional vision and that always goes beyond”.
“Prior to joining Morales & Besa, the main factors I considered in my decision were the firm’s growth possibilities for those willing to execute with standards of excellence and the fact that meritocracy was one of Morales & Besa’s key organizational pillars. From the start, I was provided with the necessary liberty and support to establish a renewed practice area, so this appointment is also a recognition of the effort that we, as competition law practice team, have made. It is an honour to be promoted to partnership and being able to work with such an exceptional group of professionals, a challenge that I take with great enthusiasm”, María José Henríquez said.
María José is regularly invited to speak at antitrust conferences and seminars. She recently participated in the “Antitrust in the Americas” conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a key antitrust event organized by the American Bar Association. Her latest publications include the Chilean chapter in the latest edition of the Global Practice Guide 2019 on Cartels by Chambers & Partners. She is often quoted in the national business media and her acknowledgments include the Next Generation Lawyer category by Legal 500, in addition to the considerably raising the area’s position in the main legal rankings such as Legal 500, Leaders League and Global Competition Review, among others.
María José Henríquez received her law degree from the Universidad de Chile School of Law, a LL.M in Trade Regulation and Antitrust from New York University, and a degree in Regulation and Competition from the School of Business of Universidad de Chile.
