Insights and Analysis
AI-washing – when AI hype becomes a litigation risk
Mariana S. Avendaño
Senior Associate Corporate & Finance
Languages
English, Spanish
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
Mariana’s practice encompasses a wide range of issues affecting companies across various industries, including energy, infrastructure, trade, and power, and she provides clients with strategic advice on a variety of corporate and finance matters.
Mariana advises clients on complex energy transition and infrastructure projects, including carbon capture and storage (CCUS), oil and gas developments, and CO₂ pipeline projects. She is experienced in managing multijurisdictional equity and asset sales and advising on complex project financings, and cross-border transactions.
Her practice spans mergers and acquisitions, project finance, infrastructure development, and risk management across domestic and international markets. Mariana regularly negotiates commercial and non-commercial agreements in English and Spanish and advises sovereign clients in Latin America and Africa on sovereign financing, debt management and restructuring, and cross-border capital markets transactions. She also has experience applying INCOTERMS 2020 in international trade matters.
Trained in both civil law and common law systems, Mariana brings a global perspective to her work. Before joining Hogan Lovells, she served for seven years as in-house counsel at an international commodities trading company headquartered in Houston.
Drawing on her in-house experience, Mariana offers practical, business-oriented legal advice aligned with clients’ objectives. She has extensive experience drafting and negotiating multinational and multimillion-dollar agreements and advising on contracts related to the purchase and sale of commodities, offtakes, distribution, charter party terms, risk- and profit-sharing arrangements, mergers, asset and equity acquisitions, financing, logistics, storage, guarantees, and nondisclosure agreements, among others.
Representative experience
Represented the Republic of Ecuador in a US$500 million sovereign credit facility to expand access to affordable, climate-resilient housing for low- and middle-income households
Advised the Republic of Ecuador on its historic and successful return to the international capital markets consisting of a new benchmark offering of sovereign bonds and a tender offer
Assisted the Republic of Ecuador on the historic US$1 billion “debt to nature swap” transaction to support the Republic’s Amazon Biocorredor Program.
Assisted the Republic of Ecuador on the landmark restructuring of its US$17.4bn in international bonds, helping the country complete one of the largest international restructurings in Latin America.
Represented Equinor in an investment in Standard Lithium Ltd.’s Southwest Arkansas and East Texas lithium extraction and production operations.
Represented the Government of the Bahamas in a project for the purchase of liquefied natural gas and regasification in the Bahamas.
Represented Japanese petroleum company JX Nippon in the buyout of its partner in a joint venture which developed a CO2 processing facility, a CO2 pipeline, a gas fired peaker plant in Texas.
Advised Assured Guaranty Municipal on insurance of US$1.134 billion of bonds for Brightline Passenger Rail Project in Florida.
Advised Assured Guaranty Municipal on a bond issuance to refinance a portion of the costs relating to the New Terminal One Project of John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City.
Counseled companies in connection with contracts impacted by unforeseeable events, including force majeure events; and identified legal exposure, exit strategies, risks, and mitigating options.
Credentials
Education
- LL.M in Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources law, University of Houston Law Center, 2012
- J.D., Universidad Rafael Urdaneta, Summa Cum Laude, 2009
Bar admissions and qualifications
- New York
- Texas
- Venezuela
Publications
News
Press releases
13 May 2026
Press releases
02 March 2026
Press releases
30 January 2026