Meet your team


Guido Demarco

DIRECTOR – HEAD OF LEGAL ASSETS
gdemarco@stonward.com

Guido Demarco is Director – Head of Legal Assets at Stonward. He is in charge of and oversees Stonward’s daily operations relating to origination and assessment of commercial litigation and international commercial and investment arbitration cases, claims related to competition law infringements and insolvency related matters, matching them with specialized funding. He also oversees the progress of cases that are being funded.

Guido is a legal expert with extensive experience in debt restructuring (private and sovereign), NPL strategies and legal, banking and financial projects management. Prior to joining Stonward, Guido worked for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a legal advisor, where he had the opportunity to work closely with different governments and high-level stakeholders. Previously, he worked as an associate at Baker McKenzie, in the Buenos Aires office, where he worked on cross-border financing operations and projects.

Some projects that stand out in his career include the design of a secondary market for the trading of NPLs in Kazakhstan, advising a large international fund on the acquisition of a majority shareholding of a tech company (USD 724 million deal), and the development of a training program for judges and insolvency practitioners in Armenia.

Guido holds a Law degree from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina) and graduated with Merit from an LL.M in Banking & Finance from Queen Mary University of London.

Member of:

Armando Betancor is Chair of the Board of Investments. He is a top insolvency administrator in Spain, a pioneer in litigation funding and expert in cross-border transactions.

Considered as one of the most important lawyers in the restructuring and insolvency sector by the international Chambers & Partners directory, his creativity and vision stands out, being able to work on and develop the most complex legal cases. As insolvency administrator of the Petersen companies, he secured a funding agreement with Burford Capital that allowed the companies to pursue their claim against Argentina in the Courts of New York.

In his more than 20 years of work experience applied to commercial law, Armando Betancor has advised hundreds of companies in bankruptcy, and has participated in processes of restructuring and insolvency of national and multinational companies.
Member of the International Bar Association, the Turnaround Management Association and the Spanish Club of Arbitration.


Armando Betancor

BOARD OF INVESTMENTS
betancor@stonward.com


Chris Garvey

BOARD OF INVESTMENTS
cgarvey@stonward.com

Chris Garvey is member of the Board of Investments. He is an experienced lawyer with +20 years in transactional deals, and former Executive Director, Head of Merchant Banking & Real Estate Investing Legal at Morgan Stanley. In 2017 Chris founded Sachenga and has worked in the past 5 years in the litigation funding industry.

During this time, he has helped claimants and advisors on a global basis raise capital to pursue or develop a wide range of litigation related assets and strategies at all ends of the value spectrum. Through this experience, he has established relationships with law firms and specialist funders in most major financial markets and has advised on a range of different litigation asset types and transactions, including single claims, group claims, portfolio financings, enforcements and litigation collateralized loans.

Chris qualified as a lawyer in England & Wales (1997) and the State of New York (2000) and practiced as a corporate attorney with Mishcon de Reya and then Denton Wilde Sapte (today Dentons) in London, Tokyo and Istanbul.

Blas González member of the Board of Investments. With over 17 years of experience as a judge, he knows the ins and outs of the judiciary system, and knows the meaning of excellence in the commercial, patent and trademark litigation frame. Currently, Blas is a lawyer focused on Commercial, Bankrupcy, Corporate and IP law.

He has published more than 50 papers in commercial law and has given numerous lectures on the subject in a variety of national and international institutions. He is also an International Consultant for the General Council of the Judiciary (CGJP), the National Association for the Defense of Brands (ANDEMA), WIPO, and other institutions related to Insolvency and Intellectual Property field.

He has taught at the Commercial Law department at Granada School of Law, coordinating the Industrial Property and Competition Law module, and has given lectures at several business schools and universities (for the master’s degree in Access to the Legal Profession) such as: ICADE-ESADE, CUNEF, C.U. VILLANUEVA.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at University of Granada, and passed the Judicial Service state examination in 1995.


Blas A. González

BOARD OF INVESTMENTS
bgonzalez@stonward.com


Diego Juan Abelleyra

CORPORATE ADVISOR
dabelleyra@stonward.com

Diego Juan Abelleyra is a specialist in the energy sector. He has a robust and highly qualified legal advice expertise in complex M&A and corporate and project finance transactions, with a special focus in transactions involving the development, construction, financing, O&M, and sale and purchase of infrastructure and energy projects. He is a qualified lawyer in Argentina, for more than 10 years he was the General Counsel of the leader renewables energies company of the country, and for 11 years was part of Marval, O’ Farrell & Mairal, Argentina’s main law firm.

He obtained a LLM with merit grade in Banking and Finance Law at the University of London (Queen Mary College, Centre for Commercial Law Studies). He is based in the UK.

Eduardo Frutos is another pioneer of litigation finance in Spain. He assisted in the settlement of a funding agreement that allowed the Petersen companies to claim the compensation to which they were entitled. Since then, he has actively participated in the litigation finance market through the evaluation and selection of cases, associating them with specialized funds.
In addition to specializing in M&A transactions, Frutos has led mass antitrust claims proceedings.

Eduardo Frutos has a law degree and a diploma in international relations from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas ICADE. He has a master’s degree in business law from the Garrigues Study Center and is a regular speaker at academic forums. He has also collaborated in different publications.


Eduardo Frutos

CORPORATE ADVISOR
efrutos@stonward.com


Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal

SENIOR ADVISER
rolivares@stonward.com

Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal is senior adviser. He is a Professor of Banking and Finance Law at Queen Mary University of London and international consultant for several multilateral institutions in Washington D.C. and Europe, Central Banks, and Sovereign States.

As an expert in Financial Law, Rodrigo brings his high technical expertise advising creditors and a wide international vision. He is an expert in transactional and contractual matters, legal research and analysis, strategy, development and composition of complicated contracts and agreements. He is a senior insolvency expert for the World Bank, bank resolution expert for the European Parliament and consultant for multilateral institutions, and has acted as expert on sovereign debt for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

With more than 20 years of experience, and working from London and Madrid, he has developed projects in five continents, among which stands out the evaluation of the effectiveness of the insolvency laws of the 38 economies where the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development operates. He currently coordinates and represents the Cuban creditors’ committee and a group of Venezuelan creditors in Europe.

Joaquín Pani is a seasoned legal professional with two decades of experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial law, real estate, and lending transactions. His expertise extends to financial services and the design and implementation of private equity investments across various industries.

He is the founder of Pani Abogados, S.C., a boutique firm specializing in corporate, real estate, and finance law. Joaquín has previously held positions at prominent law firms in Mexico City, including Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enriquez and Ritch Mueller.

Joaquín currently serves as Stonward’s senior advisor in Mexico. In this role, he focuses on identifying and evaluating potential business opportunities, fostering relationships with key stakeholders in the Mexican market.


Joaquín Pani

SENIOR ADVISOR
JPani@stonward.com

Stonward offers you bespoke
solutions to access legal finance.

Stonward offers you bespoke solutions to access legal finance.