Alejandro Peña Prieto has been appointed Squire Patton Boggs' head of Latin America practice. (Courtesy Photo)

Squire Patton Boggs has appointed Alejandro Peña Prieto as head of the firm's Latin America practice, based in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.

The appointment, along with other changes to the Latin America practice, is aimed at providing seamless services to clients doing inbound and outbound business across the region, the firm said.

In addition, the firm has formed a 20-person executive committee to drive the strategic direction of the practice in Latin America. The executive committee members are based in Houston, Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York, and provide expertise on topics such as trade, international dispute resolution, and energy.

"One of the key strengths of our firm is precisely the fact that we have a large number of attorneys with strong Latin America practices located in various offices," said Peña Prieto, who assists U.S., Latin American and European investors with significant business interests in the Dominican Republic, particularly in the energy, banking and finance, real estate and hospitality and consumer product sectors.

The committee holds scheduled bimonthly calls and an in-person meeting once a year. In addition, the firm has created a six-person operational committee for Latin America that meets at least once a month, either by phone or in-person, to coordinate the work of the broader committee.

Squire's Latin America practice has three country desks: a Brazil desk chaired by Paula A. Galhardo; a Mexico desk chaired by Alvaro J. Mestre; and a Caribbean/Central America Desk chaired by Eduardo R. Guzmán.