Miriam Figueroa has extensive experience advising clients on infrastructure projects, public finance, public-private partnerships and administrative law. She has also advised government and private clients on energy related matters.
Miriam has actively participated in negotiating infrastructure, power purchase agreements and public-private partnership contracts. She has also participated in multiple securities offerings representing issuers and underwriters and has advised private banks in commercial and real-estate based lending transactions. Miriam has advised government entities in a variety of novel transactions and financing structures, including public-private partnerships in water utilities, maritime ports, airports, and renewable energy projects.
Miriam had a key role in advising the Government of Puerto Rico in the process of creating the regulatory structure to implement in Puerto Rico the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, particularly new renewable energy related policy and legislation.
Miriam was also part of the multidisciplinary team participating in the original financial and organizational restructuring of the Puerto Rico public electric utility. In that capacity, she had an active role in drafting and negotiating with lawmakers and other stakeholders key legislation to implement such restructuring prior to the approval by Congress of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).
Miriam also has advised clients in connection with procurement processes, structuring organizations to ensure regulatory compliance, and in processes before the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau and other administrative bodies.
Tell me about DLA Piper in Puerto Rico.
DLA Piper opened the office in Puerto Rico in May of 2016, just over a year before Hurricane Maria hit the island. In May 2016, we started with two partners and an associate in a temporary office. The other two of the original four partners recruited to open the office, had also started by September of that year. We grew steadily from there.
Were you taken over or were you recruited as DLA?
DLA recruited the original four partners from different firms, targeted specifically and with the task of opening DLA’s new office in San Juan. We were selected individually identifying our respective strengths and backgrounds. From that original group, we have been growing the office organically. We haven’t merged with or taken in any other firm, with the exception of the biggest team that joined us in the summer of 2022, from a small boutique white collar investigation firm. Four lawyers (two partners and two associates) came over together. So that’s the biggest single recruitment we’ve made. We are now eight partners and 31 lawyers.
In under eight years, we have grown steadily, adding to our initial Corporate and Tax capabilities, a Civil and Commercial Litigation group, a White Collar Investigation & Defense team and a Labour and Employment group. And, as part of our Regulatory team (crossing between Corporate and Litigation), we also have Environmental Law expertise as well. We are now a full-service law firm.
Our short and medium term plans are to recruit bankruptcy and real estate expertise too. Hopefully we will have news on that later in the year, but for now we have all the traditional departments and services to provide our clients the support they need in their transactions and, if needed, in dispute resolution. Â Tax planning is also one of our fortes.
How does the San Juan office fit into the firm as a whole?
It’s interesting that when we first opened here, the way we characterized to the market and the press that DLA had landed in Puerto Rico, was reflected in our promo for our opening event: “from Puerto Rico to the world and connecting the world to Puerto Rico.†Over the years, that’s exactly how it has been.
Historically, Puerto Rico has been recognized for its strategic geopolitical location. We are right in the middle of North and South America, and in the entryway to the Caribbean Sea and Central America from the Atlantic Ocean.
In practical terms, we are the link that connects the DLA US offices with the LatAm teams, the Common Law systems in the North with the Civil Law jurisdictions in the South. We bridge legal systems and clients’ needs.  Within the Corporate department, almost all partners are New York licenced attorneys. That way we can serve in teams in US transactions and in transactions involving Latin American clients or European clients doing business in LATAM under NY law.
To my mind there are two main reasons for an international firm to open up in a country in which it doesn’t have a presence. One, maybe they think they can make money, or two, they have clients that are not being serviced properly by local firms. Were either of those true in this case?
I would say it was initially the second point. DLA was referring work to other firms in the island to serve the needs of its clients with presence in Puerto Rico. And it was not only more complicated for DLA to manage multiple firms for our clients, but our clients were also looking for a simplified way of receiving legal services. With a local office, DLA could offer a single point of contact, simplified billing, integrated services, and especially, a shared knowledge of the client and its business, making more effective and efficient the integration of new lawyers in new matters as the needs of the clients evolve. Â Our partner Francisco Cerezo, another Puerto Rican based in DLA Piper Miami, was the one who recognized this opportunity and need, and pitched the idea to the firm leadership back in 2016.
Fortunately, as the office expanded, it also became a profitable enterprise on its own, with great potential for more, no doubt.
What’s your role in the firm?
I am the Managing Partner of the Puerto Rico office, the only woman founder of this office and the first woman managing partner in one of our LatAm offices. I also co-lead the P3s and infrastructure projects practice in at the LATAM level.
My main focus, in addition to managing the day to day of the office, is to strategically organize our continued growth, align it with DLA Piper’s wider strategic plan, and integrating our team. Many of our lawyers and support staff joined the firm during the pandemic or shortly after, when remote or hybrid work became the norm. That has allowed us to recruit people with great talents but who prefer the flexibility of hybrid work. However, as leaders of the firm, we need to ensure that young talent gets trained, mentored, develop their sense of belonging, learn the culture of the firm, and receive the support they need. These goals are better served in person, but incentivizing people to come to the office, without having to implement a mandatory policy, has been challenging.
On the professional side of my practice, I would like to focus on liaising the P3s and infrastructure teams in Lat Am with our US capabilities and maximizing our hemisphere capabilities in these sectors.
Do you have any work highlights of which you are most proud?
I am very proud of the fact that I was one of the few people in Puerto Rico who believed in the possibilities of diversifying our energy portfolio through public policy, back in 2009, and generating cleaner energy. One of the pillars of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) when enacted into law by President Obama, was to give States and territories the funding to start incentivizing the use of distributed renewable energy and more energy efficient equipment in our homes and businesses. Puerto Rico was included in that bill but it required the creation of the regulatory framework to implement it. I was asked to join the multidisciplinary team that was tasked with drafting the law and regulations to define the policy, organize the process to qualify subgrantees and ensure proper use of the funding, and to create mechanisms for those policies to last beyond ARRA.
At that time, unfortunately, other professionals did not want to join the efforts of developing this new area of law, this sector. Few people really cared about renewable energy and most did not believe it had arrived to stay!  I embraced the challenge and held hand with engineers and policy makers and we started what I would say was the renewable and alternative energy revolution in Puerto Rico. Terms like “distributed generation,†“net metering,†“energy auditâ€, “net zero†were foreign to most people.   In that vacuum, we had to study what other jurisdictions were doing, draft laws, regulations, help define the public policy that was going to be supported with ARRA funding. We were vanguardists and I am very proud to have been part of the team that started the discourse, the conversation of renewable energy, energy diversification, of CO2 reduction, of reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, and creating jobs and a new industry.
At the time, dedicating time and effort to emerging energy matters seemed risky, but that gave me the knowledge, the experience and the first-mover advantage in a sector that still represents an important part of my practice.
Do any of those other energy matters stand out to you as particular work highlights?
I think the highlight in recent years has been participating in a project that combines my two main areas of interest and practice: energy and public private partnerships. Â DLA represented the consortium of Quanta and ATCO in the request for proposal process to select a private operator to manage the transmission and distribution system in Puerto Rico and modernize it. Our client was awarded the bid and we continue to be their lead counsel, now in the operational stage and contract implementation. We also represent them before the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau.
As Managing Partner what does your management style look like?
That is probably a question for other people to answer! But I acknowledge that I am tough, that I expect our team to thrive for excellence. At the same time, I like our people to come in and talk, to ask for help, share their ideas and initiatives, participate! I’m always looking for ways to encourage people to come to the office, organise events and get together. I try to be intentional about getting our team together because that is the only way to know, to observe how they are doing, ensure their wellbeing. Â My goal, ultimately, is for our people to feel appreciated, accomplished and happy, even though sometimes work can be overwhelming.
Presumably you have some hybrid working arrangement in place still? Is it three in, two out?
Yes, we do. We encourage our lawyers to come in three days a week, but it is still voluntary. We’re not demanding or requiring any particular arrangement. We have kept that flexibility. However, Associates are in the office almost every day. Those that are more senior and require less supervision or mentoring, come less frequently, but the younger members of our team enjoy coming to the office and appreciate the one-on-one interaction they get from the more senior attorneys. In fact, they are demanding more presence of the partners and senior attorneys! And that is a request that has to be heard. We are taking measures to make it happen.
DE&I and ESG are big topics in law firm management. How does this play out in the Puerto Rico office of DLA?
I think we are leading the charts in terms of diversity and inclusion. Not only are five of our eight equity partners women, but two of them are members of the LGBT community and they’re married to each other.  Everyone is open and respectful.  We are very pleased of the inclusive culture we have created in our office and are proudly disrupting a still male-dominated law firms’ culture in the Island.  Having me as Managing Partner, and Nereida Melendez as Deputy Managing Partner, DLA Piper is also sending a very powerful message to other male-dominated law firms. I certainly hope that our example opens the door to more diversity in leadership positions in other law firms in Puerto Rico.
Is your pro DE&I position a strategic development or did it just happen that way? Is it a reaction to getting the best talent or perhaps is it in response to client demands?
Obviously clients are demanding it, and rightly so. They are diverse and want to see that their legal counsels share the same values. Â But it is also inherently beneficial to us, to our office. We have to ensure that we not only recruit and retain the best talent, but also that our people, at all levels, reflect the diversity of our society. Â Diversity, equity and inclusion is in our DNA. They are values we cherish, encourage, respect. Diverse talent makes our office richer!
Furthermore, clients are looking at us as an example to follow and are asking for guidance. We have held DE&I events, filled to capacity given the interest in the subject, on how to implement DE&I in professions traditionally homogeneous, male-dominated and closed to diverse ownership and leadership. The interest is definitely there. Clients are looking to us not only as lawyers, but as an example of successful implementation of DE&I initiatives.
Are you seeing any growth areas in Puerto Rico in terms of practice areas or industry sectors?
There is still need for infrastructure and reconstruction projects in the island after Hurricane Maria. The procurement and implementation of the projects has been very slow and so has been the release of the funds from the US government, but we have seen better movement in this past year, and it is expected to continue. Reconstruction and hardening of our infrastructure will take year to complete.
Another area of focus from the government, where we may see more incentives and growth, is in aerospace. Also in technology and AI. In Puerto Rico, not only do we have important manufacturing companies and businesses using artificial intelligence to accomplish their business needs, but also researching and developing the technology themselves. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry and in the health industry.
The COVID pandemic made the transportation and logistics industries require attention. As we are an island, we cannot survive without a strong maritime transportation and logistics base, as the bulk of what we consume is imported. I think our transportation and logistics facilities need modernisation, reconstruction and expansion, especially our maritime infrastructure. That, I believe, will become another area of focus in the coming years.
Why did you get into law in the first place?
It was an accident of fate! As a kid, I never thought about becoming a lawyer. In fact, as a kid I wanted to be a teacher or a neurosurgeon! I was fascinated by the brain.  In high school my interests changed and I studied to become a diplomat.  I had it all planned: graduating from college, working in Washington DC for a couple of years, applying to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and from there, beginning a career in the Foreign Services, with a view to becoming one day Ambassador to the United States in Russia. However, the congressman for whom I worked resigned to become a Puerto Rico Supreme Court Justice. I was out of a job before the time was right to apply to SAIS! The Congressman recommended that I studied law and to decide if the Foreign Service was still of interest to me after becoming a lawyer. The Foreign Services never happened. I fell in love with this profession!
Are you from a legal family?
No, my mother was a homemaker. My father was a journalist, a radio broadcaster and producer. I was the first lawyer in my family.
At the time you were thinking Foreign Service, but looking back now, if you hadn’t gone into law, what would you have done?
Medicine. Science. In middle school I thought about that seriously. But at some point, I was disappointed with my biology class. Maybe I was expecting more. But I was really fascinated by the brain. I probably would have studied something related to it to become a neurologist, or a neurosurgeon.
Also, I think that I could have had a successful career in the foreign service if I had pursued that path. Â I am an innate negotiator. As a lawyer, I would say my strongest skill is probably negotiating contracts. I’ve always liked negotiations, the problem-solving aspects of it. Understanding where the other party is coming from, where my client stands, and trying to bridge the gap that separates them with reasonable solutions to both parties. And I guess diplomacy, at least ideally, it’s all about that.
Did you decide to return to Puerto Rico after your LMM at Harvard?
No, I stayed in New York, and I worked for Allen & Overy there. From NY, I went to the Tokyo office for a year.  I got really homesick in Japan, and I decided that I wanted to come back home. Being in Japan accelerated my return, although it was an amazing experience, professionally. On the personal side, Tokyo is very tough for foreigners. The language barrier really makes it difficult to integrate. Tokyo on vacation is a different story. It’s a great place to visit, fascinating culture. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Lost in Translation. It is so real!  The movie is accurate in reflecting the feeling of loneliness of an expat in Japan. I think because I was in Tokyo, I ended up returning home to Puerto Rico. Maybe if I had stayed in New York, I would still be in New York. We will never know….
That leads me on to what it’s like living and working in Puerto Rico. What are the best things about being there?
I can do here what I did when I was in Tokyo or in New York. It’s the best of all worlds. Â But that is only true because I am with DLA Piper and can benefit from the DLA global platform, the breadth of our clients and transactions. Most have an international component. I benefit from that international/global experience but can be at home too.
My family is here. I come from a very close family and having them around is important. I still have my mom. Thankfully I was here when my father got sick with cancer and passed away. Â At DLA Piper Puerto Rico I can work in the matters I like and still be close to the people I love.
In Puerto Rico we also enjoy the benefits of beautiful outdoors and warm weather year-round. We are a tropical island; having the rain forest national reserve to hike, or world-class beaches to go to, is a privilege and a luxury not to waste!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’m a foodie and I enjoy my wine too! I think what I enjoy the most of my weekends is when I can have all my family together. We are four siblings with 10 nephews and nieces, and then there’s my husband’s family as well. A perfect Sunday for me is to get together with my family and friends, cook, have a nice bottle of red wine (or two!) and catch up! Having everyone around makes me happy, energizes me!
When I am not making noise in a family gathering, then I wish for the opposite: quiet time to read. What a luxury! That is something that I miss greatly and it’s one of my intentions for this year: disconnecting from electronics and finding confetti time for pleasure reading. Â Not a news article or an online magazine, but an actual book with that wonderful smell of printed paper. I was an avid reader when I was younger, but now, between work and family duties, and hyper connectivity, there is little time to read without the interruption of a chime or notification that demands immediate attention.
I also like decorating. We have a new family vacation home which we are in the process of decorating. Researching for decoration pieces, art, furniture, is something I do with my husband. He’s a lawyer also and this activity is totally different from our daily chores. It is a great way to reconnect and escape from the routine for both of us!
