Melissa Fonseca
Associate
Overview
Melissa Fonseca Velásquez is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Bogotá office. Ms. Fonseca Velásquez focuses on administrative and commercial law, as well as complex litigation and arbitration.
Ms. Fonseca Velásquez has experience advising leading companies in the energy, oil and gas, and infrastructure sectors on managing high-stakes disputes, regulatory compliance and legal risk prevention.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Fonseca Velásquez served as senior legal counsel for a leading midstream oil company in Colombia, where she led the company's judicial and extrajudicial defense, prepared strategic legal analyses for senior management and the board of directors, and ensured regulatory compliance in key projects. She also led strategies to resolve labor and environmental conflicts, ensuring operational continuity and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders.
Previously, Ms. Fonseca Velásquez worked for various top-tier Colombian law firms, where she represented national and international clients in arbitration, as well as constitutional and commercial disputes. Her work included designing litigation strategies for clients in regulated industries and advising on risk prevention in major infrastructure projects.
Ms. Fonseca Velásquez has also served as counsel to public and private entities in disputes involving concession contracts, public procurement and administrative proceedings. She has played a key role in arbitration and litigation cases arising from large-scale projects in sectors such as transportation, energy, and oil and gas.
Representative Experience
- Represented a state-owned gas transportation company in a complex arbitration arising from the termination of a build-own-operate-maintain-transfer (BOOMT) contract for one of Colombia's most significant gas pipelines
- Represented and advised a concessionaire company in an amicable settlement arising from the termination of a BOOMT contract for a water treatment plant critical to the city of Bogotá
- Represented a concessionaire company in an amicable settlement arising from the termination of a BOOMT contract for Bogotá's aerial cable system
- Represented and advised concessionaire company in a national arbitration arising from a third-generation concession contract
- Represented a public trust in an international arbitration under the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Center rules, a complex case involving three master construction agreements and 250 individual contracts
Credentials
- Queen Mary University of London, LL.M., Comparative and International Dispute Resolution
- Universidad de los Andes, Specialization, Public Management and Administrative Institutions
- Universidad de los Andes, J.D.
- Colombia
- Outstanding Talent of the Year, Oleoducto de los Llanos Orientales S.A., Colombia Branch, 2024