Our Team

Sandra Orihuela, Esq.

Founder & Managing Partner

Founder of Orihuela Attorneys, an international legal boutique focused on corporate transactions, OFAC and sanctions compliance, anti-corruption and AML, and cross-border risk. She has been recognized by Chambers & Partners and has more than three decades of experience advising and leading global companies across the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Sandra Orihuela

Practice

Transactional and compliance experience

As an international transactions lawyer, Sandra has led complex cross-border M&A, structured and securities financings, joint ventures and international arbitration across mining, telecom, private equity and life sciences.

As a senior in-house and compliance executive within European, Japanese and Canadian multinationals, she has helped lead remediation under U.S. Department of Justice agreements, advised on FCPA, OFAC and international sanctions, AML, SOX and Dodd-Frank, and overseen ISO 37001 anti-bribery certification and corporate-monitor engagements. This gives her an operating executive’s perspective on how governance and risk decisions land inside a business.

She holds law degrees in both the U.S. common-law and civil-law systems and works with equal fluency in English and Spanish.

Awards and recognition

Independently ranked

Chambers USA

Spotlight Guide — Corporate Compliance, 2025–2026

Chambers & Partners

Global and Latin America — Foreign Expert / Notable Practitioner: Mining, Corporate/M&A and Environment (Peru), 2022–2024

Best Lawyers™

Mining Law, Peru, 2015–2023 · Lawyer of the Year – Mining, Peru, 2018

Lexology Index

Formerly Who’s Who Legal — Highly Recommended, Mining, 2013–2027

Education

Common law and civil law

  • University of Colorado — Juris Doctor (J.D.)
  • University of Colorado — Bachelor of Arts, International Studies
  • Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú — Civil Law Attorney
  • Harvard Business School — Executive Education: Board Governance
  • UC Berkeley Haas — Executive Education: Fintech Frameworks
  • Yale School of Management — Executive Education: Corporate Sustainability Management
  • International Chamber of Commerce (Paris) — Arbitrator Training
  • International Anti-Corruption Academy (Vienna) — Legal Incentives for Corporate Integrity Program
  • American University, Washington College of Law — U.S. and International Anti-Corruption Law Program

Thought leadership

Speaker, writer and trainer

Sandra trains boards and C-suite executives and is a frequent writer and speaker at international legal and compliance forums, contributing perspectives on cross-border compliance, OFAC and sanctions enforcement trends, anti-corruption developments and international corporate transactions. She also advised the Government of Peru on its OECD Anti-Bribery Convention accession.