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MEET OUR TEAM

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Stanley T. Stairs Founding Partner
Stanley T. Stairs Founding Partner

Stanley was born and raised in California. He is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and Harvard Law School and attended the University of Madrid. After graduation from Harvard Law he joined the United States Agency for International Development, working out of the US Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia where he focused in basic infrastructure development.

He later joined a Wall Street law firm, representing public companies doing business in Latin America and Europe. In 1977 he left to start his own firm.

Stanley has represented Scandinavian investment funds investing in the U.S. real estate market, and buyers and sellers of companies in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. He is experienced on both the buy side and sell side, including raising debt and equity to finance acquisitions and buy-outs. He has represented clients in connection with investments in, and the purchase and sale of, technology and life science companies.

He has been a director and trustee of many commercial companies and not-for-profit organizations, and the Chairman of several.

He and his wife live in Manhattan with three Ragdoll cats and a Steinway piano.

Stanley is fluent in English and Spanish.

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Dr. Peter F. Mayer Partner
Dr. Peter F. Mayer Partner

Peter was born and raised in Germany. He studied law at the University of Heidelberg where he earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree (Dr. iur. which is comparable to a Ph.D. degree in law) in 2000. He worked at our firm from 1998 – 2001 and moved back to Germany in 2001.

In Germany he practiced corporate law in the Berlin office of Hammonds (now Squire Patton Boggs) for seven years and thereafter at Dentons in Berlin and New York for seven years, where he was a partner, before rejoining our firm.

Peter is a transatlanticist and works with many European clients, primarily from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, that are investing in the U.S.

Peter advises emerging growth technology companies and investors on venture capital, private equity, M&A and strategic transactions. He also advises companies in connection with establishing subsidiaries, joint ventures, and distribution networks in the U.S. as well as in a broad array of cross-border commercial matters, including agency, franchise, distribution and service agreements.

He is an advisor and mentor to business accelerator programs in Germany and the US.

Peter is an avid student of history, and among his favorite subjects are ancient Greek and Roman history, the Age of Enlightenment, the French and American Revolutions and the Weimar Republic. He enjoys photography, for which New York provides a bountiful source of inspiration.

Peter and his wife live in Manhattan. They have two college aged children.

Peter is fluent in English and German.

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Lourdes Pomares Mas Associate
Lourdes Pomares Mas Associate

Lourdes was born and raised in Alicante, Spain. She studied law and business management at the University of Alicante and in the Erasmus exchange program at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

 

After graduation, Lourdes worked for J&A Garrigues, S.L.P., a major Spanish law firm, in the tax department in Alicante.

 

She joined our firm in 2012 and obtained a Masters in Banking, Corporate and Finance Law at Fordham School of Law in New York. 

 

She specializes in corporate law and international business transactions. She has worked on cross-border transactions involving corporate clients and investment funds in the U.S. and Europe. She also represents European and Latin American companies doing business in the U.S. 

 

Lourdes lives in Manhattan and enjoys watercolor painting, tennis, horseback riding and playing Spanish guitar. For more than ten years she has been an active member of the Spanish Benevolent Society, Centro Español La Nacional, the oldest Spanish society in the U.S.

 

Lourdes is fluent in English and Spanish.

 

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Sandra Luna Office and Client Relations Manager
Sandra Luna Office and Client Relations Manager

Sandra worked for 11 years for a well-known international law firm in Peru, Estudio Lavalle, before moving to the US. She completed her business administration studies at the British Academy in Lima.  She was a professional dancer and a national roller skate and aerobic champion in Peru and owned a sportwear company in Lima. 

Sandra monitors accounting and financial administration, operations and client relations.

She currently lives with her husband in Tenafly, New Jersey. 

Sandra is fluent in English and Spanish.

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Santiago Rendon Of Counsel
Santiago Rendon Of Counsel

Born in New York City and raised in Colombia, Santiago graduated from the Universidad de los Andes law faculty in Bogotá, Colombia and obtained a Masters in Law at Harvard. He remains active in alumni associations and fund raising.

He joined Brown and Wood (now Sidley) and then our firm where he practiced for 14 years. He took an extended sabbatical from the law to lead a group of investors that acquired a controlling stake in Millonarios, a Colombian professional soccer team, and was a member of the board for 8 years and at one time, President. He also held the U.S. franchise for the AC Milan Junior Camps, broadcast World Cup Qualifiers via closed circuit PPV and founded a video sports analysis company.

He returned to the law with R&S International Law Group in Miami, joined a client as in-house counsel for several years and headed a company that helped foreign families set up complex trust structures in the U.S. He returned to our firm in 2022.

Santiago has experience in a broad range of corporate transactions, including the acquisition and sales of companies, structuring family businesses and succession planning, and generally assisting companies as a virtual in-house counsel.

He has a reforestation project in Tumaco, Colombia, where he has planted over 14,000 trees of which over 2,000 are of 10 rare and endangered species. With his family he founded Solidaridad Rural, a Colombian non-profit that helps the rural poor acquire lots in organized communities.

Santiago is married, has three children under the age of 25, a dog and three cats. They live in Weston, Florida.

Santiago is fluent in English and Spanish.

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Hillary Johns Of Counsel
Hillary Johns Of Counsel

Ms. Johns is a civil trial lawyer who has tried more than one hundred cases to verdict. She is the managing partner for Hillary Johns, Trial Lawyer which maintains offices in Beverly Hills, the Bay Area and New York City. She graduated from Occidental College in 1990 and Golden Gate University School of Law in 1993 where she graduated with Dean’s List and class honors. She is licensed to practice law in California, the California Southern, Central and Northern U.S. Federal District Courts, the District of Columbia, Montana, New York, and the New York Eastern and Southern U.S. Federal District Courts.

Ms. Johns practices in the areas of civil litigation, business law, torts, defamation and media law, , intellectual property, employment law and entertainment law. She is an AV rated attorney with Martindale-Hubbell.

Ms. Johns is a native Southern Californian. She writes regularly for a nationally recognized publishing company as well as about several areas of civil law. Ms. Johns gives instruction about current employment law developments, as well as compliance assessments and training to companies to ensure their compliance with California and New York guidelines. She is a regular MCLE presenter on the East and West coast and speaker.

Ms. Johns works with the American Bar Association to provide legal services to military personnel. Ms. Johns has also served as a pro bono attorney and volunteer for local, statewide and national domestic violence organizations. She is a past alumni committee chair and current student mentor with Occidental College. She is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers Association, and the Cascade County Bar Association.

Outside of her legal career, Ms. Johns was a competitive ranked soccer player and professional athlete. She is a licensed competitive youth soccer coach. Her interests include European and American history, competitive sports, fitness for people of all ages, and animal rights.

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Laura Montejo Associate
Laura Montejo Associate

Laura Montejo was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a law degree from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá. She has post-graduate degrees in International Business Law from Los Andes and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Cornell Law School.  Additionally, she studied Mandarin-Chinese at Nankai University, in Tianjin, China for over one year.

Professionally, Laura has experience facilitating cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and providing comprehensive counsel in corporate matters, specializing in the Latin American region. She has worked on diverse and complex projects at prominent legal firms in Bogotá and New York City.

Laura is fluent in Spanish and English, with ongoing French studies, and basic Mandarin-Chinese skills.

Outside of her legal pursuits, Laura is a consummate traveler, having explored over 37 countries. She also embraces an active lifestyle enjoying sports such as tennis, water skiing, snowboarding and more.

Laura's admission to the New York State Bar is pending.