Mr. Palacios is the adviser and leading litigation counsel to one of the top three foreign investors in Colombia (a mining company); and has been an arbitrator on domestic and ICC arbitrations. In his recent practice, he obtained from the Constitutional Court a decision to annul a prior decision by the Consejo de Estado which commanded his client to pay about US$225 millions to former shareholders of a Bank that was nationalized because of insolvency (2011). He was the leading counsel to a governmental authority in an industry-wide litigation involving over 30 cases regarding the aggregate payment of approximately US$59 million in fees that the financial institutions should contribute to the deposit insurance system; in 2010 all claimants withdrew their claims against the agency without any payment or compensation whatsoever. Mr. Palacios was the leading litigation counsel to the Colombian state-owned telecommunications company in at least 14 domestic arbitrations relating to claims of approximately US$1.5 billion that were successfully settled from 2004 to 2006.
Mr. Palacios has advised several Governmental agencies in writing drafts of laws, decrees and regulations, including the Code of Administrative Law (1984); certain central banking regulations (1991 and 1995); the Statute of Ports (1991); regulations on dumping and subsidies (1990), the Public Utilities Law (electricity, gas, fixed telephony, water and waste, 1994), and the law that reforms the government agency in charge of measuring the quality and achievements at all levels of the education system (2009).
He served as co-judge in Colombia's Council of State (the highest court on Administrative Law), in Colombia's Constitutional Court and in Colombia's Supreme Court. He was Minister of Finance and Governor of Colombia's Central Bank.
Author of Alternative Legal Solutions to Economic Disruptions in Continuous Performance Contracts (2010), Public Utilities Law (1999), Economics in Colombian Constitutional Law (1999).