Nicole Silver and Tomás Leonard.

Beefing up its international arbitration bench, Greenberg Traurig added a pair of new shareholders this week in Washington, D.C., including the former chair of Winston & Strawn's Latin America practice, Tomás Leonard.

Leonard and Nicole Silver, who was of counsel at Winston, will be shareholders in Greenberg Traurig's litigation and Latin American & Iberian practices.

Leonard said the duo was attracted by Greenberg's global platform and the opportunity it presented.

“I believe that we are at a very high point in our careers and yet we are still really young,” Leonard said. “We're still young, but not too young.”

Leonard spent more than a decade at Winston, including as leader of the firm's Latin America practice. An Argentine native, he formerly practiced law in Argentina and began his Big Law career as an associate at White & Case. His practice includes representing investors and state parties before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the ICC's International Court of Arbitration, as well as in trade disputes before the International Trade Commission.

He also recently found himself squaring off against Daddy Yankee, a reggaeton celebrity, in federal court in Miami.

Along with Leonard, Silver was part of the Winston team representing the Republic of Ecuador in its multijurisdictional arbitral and courtroom battle with Chevron Corp. over that company's environmental legacy in the Amazon.

Silver said she thought Greenberg's broader platform and larger practice group mix set it apart from Winston. Leonard added he thinks the firm recognizes the potential growth their team could produce for the firm.

Neither Leonard nor Silver would say whether others from Winston would join them in the move, but Winston appears to have been the hunter more than the hunted in the capital in recent months. The firm snatched a team of energy and infrastructure lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright, including three partners and one of counsel in Washington, in February, and added Abbe David Lowell, a leading trial lawyer, from Norton Rose in May.

Leonard and Silver did not identify specific clients they have worked with in the past that would be making the move with them to Greenberg.