“If I had to pick out one thing that my time at White & Case taught me, it was the teamwork,” explains alumni Nicolás García Nielsen.

“I worked for the Firm in New York between 2007-2008, so it was right at the start of my career and I learnt a lot.”

Nicolás went from White & Case to work at a law firm in his native Chile, before being appointed legal commercial director at Empresa Nacional del Petroleo (ENAP), the state-owned Chilean energy company.

He’s based in Santiago, Chile, and was appointed ENAP’s General Counsel in 2017. Nicolás lives in Santiago, where he enjoys the city’s proximity to the countryside and Pacific Ocean.

Nicolás says: “I joined ENAP because it gave me a great opportunity to get to know the gas, oil and energy market from the inside.

“I provide support to the
commercial teams to reach
creative legal solutions
that allow the company
to grow and develop.”

“The company’s main line of business is the exploration, production, refining and marketing of hydrocarbons and their by-products and, as General Counsel, I provide support to the commercial teams to reach creative legal solutions that allow the company to grow and develop.”

Recent highlights have included working on the swap of gas between Chile and Argentina and in ENAP’s first 30‐year bond offering.

He says: “What I love about the work here is the absolute commitment of the entire company to the development of the energy market and the country as a whole.”

Nicolás graduated as an attorney from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile before qualifying as a Master in Laws from Cornell University, New York in 2007.

While at Cornell University he was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship and Cornell Law School Graduate Fellowship Award for the academic year 2006-2007.

He joined the Firm as a Foreign Associate on John Vetterli’s Capital Markets team where he represented issuers, underwriters and other market participants in the full range of debt and equity capital markets transactions.

“The thing that struck
me most about White &
Case was the way that
the partners led
by example.”

He explains: “The thing that struck me most about White & Case was the way that the partners led by example. There was also a real commitment to excellence that I admired.

“It was a steep learning curve though, and one of the most challenging parts was learning to manage a wide variety of tasks at the same time.

“It was hard at the time, but the experience has been really useful to my career since, and my time at the Firm has also helped me when working with external advisers in my current job.

“What my time at White & Case taught me more than anything though was the importance of having a good team around you. I learnt that success wasn’t only about what you achieved, but also how you achieve it.”

Since joining ENAP, Nicolás has remained in contact with several former colleagues at the Firm.

He says: “I meet up with other alumni in Santiago and I keep in touch with John and the rest of the team.

“I’ll always view my time at White & Case as an essential part of my career. I learnt the importance of discipline, teamwork and creativeness and met some fantastic people.”