Cynthia Urda Kassis

Cynthia Urda Kassis is a senior partner in Shearman & Sterling's Project Development and Finance Practice and is co-head of the firm's Mining and Metals Group. Ms. Urda Kassis represents sponsors/ borrowers/ lenders/ alternative financiers in project development and finance transactions worldwide, with extensive experience in the mining, energy, infrastructure and general manufacturing industries, as well as in power, mining and infrastructure restructurings. Ms. Urda Kassis’s clients include major financial institutions, corporations, government agencies, and numerous regional development banks and export credit agencies.

Ms. Urda Kassis’s significant experience includes a long history of notable transactions both foreign and domestic including advising the Panama Canal Authority with respect the historic financing of its $5.2 billion expansion program for the Panama Canal and United States DOT on the $526 million financing of the construction of the Moynihan Station Project in New York City.

Ms. Urda Kassis is ranked Band 1 for Projects by Chambers USA and by Chambers Latin America and listed as a Leading Lawyer for Project Finance by Legal 500 US and Legal 500 Latin America. In addition, in 2019 Ms. Urda Kassis was named “Lawyer of the Year” in Project Development & Finance for the third time at the Who’s Who Legal Awards.

Ms. Urda Kassis is regarded in various publications as an industry expert and has been involved in a number of speaking engagements at seminars and conferences on various mining and finance subjects.

Ms. Urda Kassis is a member of the New York State Bar. She received an M.A., from the University of Notre Dame and obtained a J.D., from The American University Washington College of Law.