Leonardo Costa

Leonardo Costa’s main area of practice is tax, corporate and banking law, as well as counselling to capital market and financial entities on compliance with regulations and prevention of money laundering.<br><br>He is an IDB advisor in the consultancy services to the Uruguayan Government on tax reform (2005) and for several Governments in Central America. He was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidency of Uruguay (1999 through 2005) in charge of the Executive Branch legal advice, author, co-author and reporting member of bills on taxes, telecommunications, copyright, state purchases and prevention of money laundering and the fight against terrorist financing.<br><br>He represented the country before international organisations in the fields of taxes, the fight against drugs, corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. He was a member of the Joint Commission on Trade and Investment between Uruguay and the United States of America. He was also chair of the National Drug Council of Uruguay.<br><br>He was a member of the tax departments of Ferrere Abogados and Pricewaterhouse Coopers Uruguay (1992 – 1999). He was a legal and social consultant for the United Nations Development Program, the IDB and several foreign governments in his areas of specialisation.<br><br>He obtained his Juris Doctor degree at Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay in 1992. In 1998 he completed a postgraduate degree at the International Tax Program at Harvard Law School, Massachusetts. He is Professor of International Taxation of Postgraduate Studies on Tax Specialization (since 2005) and holds the Chair of Financial and Tax Law (since 2007).<br><br>He is Professor of Prevention of Money Laundering at Diploma of Sports Law at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay (2012); Professor on Prevention of Money Laundering in the Master of Commercial Law, Universidad de la República (2015); and Professor of Law and Economics at the Universidad de Montevideo (since 2015).<br>