José Antonio Muñoz Central America Chairman, DENTONS

José Antonio is the Chairman of DENTONS in Central America (within the DENTONS Latin America and the Caribbean Region). He also leads the Firm’s Rule of Law Initiative. Of more relevance, José Antonio both organized and leads DENTONS RightShoring, a DENTONS Legal and Business solution for re-shoring, centralization of services and operational efficiency offered to clients around the world.

Throughout his career, José Antonio has played an active role in government relations by shaping public and private policy. He successfully lobbied in favor of laws such as CBI-I, CBI-II, and US DR CAFTA.

He represented the Costa Rican private sector in the country’s accession to GATT and has helped in negotiations of settlement agreements with the US International Trade Commission related to countervailing and dumping investigations.

While Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Washington, DC, José Antonio represented the Government of Costa Rica at the US Department of State, USTR, USDOC, the US Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Council. Subject matters included Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) / labor investigations, freedom of the seas, international extraditions, and the applications to Costa Rica of the Gonzales and Hickenlooper Amendments to the US Foreign Assistance Act.

José Antonio has represented clients in cases involving government affairs, international trade, and customs; expropriation; creeping expropriation; incompatibility of local practices with international rule of law standards; and FCPA and UK anti-bribery matters.

A member of the board of directors, chair, and former chair of both the Costa Rican–American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), and the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA), José Antonio has effectively helped the Chamber leverage its resources and networks to support its members’ businesses and trade facilitation initiatives both in Latin America and in Washington, DC.

He is Member of both, the Georgetown Law Center’s Latin American Advisory Board and the Advisory Committee of CAROLA, The Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in Latin America.

He is in the Advisory Committee of The Pan American Development Foundation, PADF, an institution ascribed to the OAS (the Organization of American States).

Since 2019, José Antonio is a Member of the Inter-American Dialogue.