Dr Jorge Barrera

Dr Jorge Barrera is the founder of Jorge Barrera & Asociados, a Montevideo law firm specialising in criminal law and related areas. His practice has been named recipient of the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026 — Business Crime Law Firm of the Year in Uruguay, recognising the firm's expertise in the field of criminal and economic-crime law.

The firm

Dr Jorge Barrera founded the firm in 1994, beginning as a specialised criminal law practice. Since then it has grown steadily and now brings together highly qualified professionals. The firm concentrates on three core areas: criminal law (derecho penal), civil liability (responsabilidad civil) and insurance law (derechos de seguros), and it also offers notarial and other legal services. Its work combines advisory and litigation strengths, and it holds ISO 9001 certification in legal consulting — a mark of its commitment to quality and consistent process. The firm describes its guiding values as rigour and professionalism, underpinned by teamwork, justice and ethics, and it acts for respected corporate clients. Its offices are located in central Montevideo.

Business crime and criminal law in Uruguay

Business crime law — often described as economic or white-collar criminal law — addresses offences that arise in the commercial and financial world, such as fraud, money laundering, tax offences, and other conduct where criminal liability intersects with business activity. In Uruguay, criminal matters are governed by the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. In recent years the country has modernised its criminal justice system, moving toward an adversarial and largely oral model in which prosecutors and defence counsel present their cases before judges in open proceedings. This shift has placed a premium on advocacy skills and on lawyers who understand both the substantive law and the practical conduct of criminal litigation.

Companies and individuals facing criminal exposure in a business context require counsel who can operate across several dimensions at once. They must be able to advise on compliance and the prevention of criminal risk, to conduct internal investigations, to defend clients in criminal proceedings, and to manage the civil-liability and insurance consequences that frequently accompany allegations of wrongdoing. A firm that combines criminal law with civil liability and insurance expertise is well positioned to address these overlapping needs, because economic-crime cases rarely stay confined to a single area of law: a criminal allegation may generate parallel civil claims and engage insurance cover, and each strand must be handled with a view to the others.

A specialist heritage

The firm's origins as a dedicated criminal law practice give it a depth of focus that is particularly valuable in business-crime matters, where the technical demands are considerable and the reputational and financial stakes for clients are high. Its long history — more than three decades since its foundation — and its ISO-certified approach to legal consulting signal a practice that has built durable expertise and reliable working methods over time. Serving corporate clients in sensitive criminal and liability matters calls for discretion, rigour and sound judgement, qualities the firm places at the centre of its identity.

Uruguay is widely regarded as one of Latin America's most stable and institutionally sound jurisdictions, with a strong rule-of-law tradition. In this setting, businesses and their executives increasingly recognise the importance of managing criminal-law risk proactively, whether through compliance measures, internal investigations or robust defence when allegations arise. A firm that pairs a specialist criminal heritage with civil-liability and insurance capabilities is equipped to respond to the full range of consequences that a business-crime matter can generate, coordinating each strand of a client's exposure in a single, coherent strategy.

Recognition

By naming Dr Jorge Barrera and Jorge Barrera & Asociados Business Crime Law Firm of the Year in Uruguay for 2026, the Corporate INTL Global Awards recognise a specialist criminal law practice with a long track record in Uruguay. Its combination of criminal, civil liability and insurance expertise, its commitment to rigour and professionalism, and its experience acting for corporate clients make it a natural choice for those facing business-crime and related matters in the Uruguayan legal system.