Hogan & Hartson has continued its recent international expansion plan by adding its first base in Latin America after hiring a senior partner from Venezuelan firm Hoet Pelaez Castillo & Duque.

Bruno Ciuffetelli, who is one of Hoet Pelaez's five-member management committee, joins the US giant to open a base in Caracas.

He is an energy expert and a professor at Universidad Central de Venezuela and moves with fellow partner Luis Bottaro and two associates.

Ciuffetelli also spent a number of years in the UK working for Norton Rose and Burges Salmon, as well as the Rome hub of Italian leader Chiomenti.

The move is the latest in a wave of expansion this year for Washington DC-based Hogan, which has so far this year launched an additional Asian base in Hong Kong and a European branch in Geneva.