Álvaro Castellanos is a Founding Partner at the Guatemala office. With 40 years of experience in the financial services and insurance sectors, he specializes in banking, arbitration, foreign investment, and mergers and acquisitions.

He has held high-level leadership positions in international arbitration and dispute resolution, including serving as president and member of ad hoc committees in annulment proceedings under the ICSID Convention. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Conflict Resolution Commission of the Guatemalan Chamber of Industry, acted as an ad hoc Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case Tiu Tojín v. State of Guatemala, and represented Guatemala before the ICC International Court of Arbitration (2006–2018).

He has also served as a member of the Editorial Board of IURISTEC, university professor, columnist at El Periódico, and former Dean of the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences at Universidad Rafael Landívar.

Practice Areas

• Banking and Finance Law
• National and International Arbitration
• Foreign Investment

• Advised Promerica Financial Corporation on the acquisition of Banco Citibank de Guatemala, S.A., Cititarjetas, Limitada, and related companies, a transaction involving US$1.474 billion in assets and nearly 100 bank branches.
• Local counsel to the Sole Lead Manager and Bookrunner in the issuance of notes by the Republic of Guatemala on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange for US$500 million, which received purchase orders totaling US$1.69 billion.
• Advised Citibank, N.A. (Guatemala Branch) on a loan of approximately US$3.6 million to Pegamorteros de Guatemala, S.A.
• Special counsel to Banco de América Central, S.A. (BAC Guatemala) in obtaining a US$50 million loan from a syndicate of banks led by Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S.A.

• Candidate for Doctorate in Law, Universidad San Carlos, Guatemala
• Master of Laws (LL.M.), specialization in Comparative and International Law (Fulbright-Laspau Scholarship), Columbia University Law School, United States (1990)
• Degree in Legal and Social Sciences, Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala (1986)

• Member, College of Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala
• Member, IBA Poverty and Social Development Committee
• Member, American Chamber of Commerce in Guatemala (AMCHAM)
• Member, Latin American Arbitrage Committee, International Commerce Chamber (ICC)
• Member, International Bar Association (IBA)
• Member, Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB)