FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN - The election of Colombia’s first leftist president has much of the legal community on edge amid fears that his administration will radically overhaul the economic model in one of Latin America’s largest economies, Law.com International’s Amy Guthrie reports. Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla turned politician, won the presidency by a slim margin in a June 19 runoff vote. Petro has pledged to raise taxes on the rich while quitting oil exploration and open-pit mining in a nation that relies on fossil fuels for nearly half its export revenue. “There is a lot of uncertainty and concern” among lawyers in Colombia, said Alejandra Rojas, founding partner of UpWyse, a company that develops marketing and business plans for law firms in Latin America. “The legal sector grows if investment, companies, innovation and entrepreneurship grow,” added Rojas, who is also a lawyer based in Bogotá. International law firms with offices in Colombia include Baker McKenzie, Holland & Knight, Dentons, DLA Piper, Garrigues, Cuatrecasas and CMS.

WHAT YOU SAID

“The tone of disregard or contempt for the courts that came before—majority Republicans—and repeatedly reaffirmed Roe is astonishing. This is the least of it, but as someone who cares about the court, it makes you profoundly heartsick.”

— Harry Litman, former U.S. attorney, reacting to the U.S. Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.