This news was published by Law Intrenational. 

The arrivals, in competition and M&A, follow the elite Spanish firm’s rapid growth in Latin America over the past year.

ECIJA has recruited two new partners to its Madrid headquarters, continuing a growth spurt that has seen the elite Spanish firm add lawyers in Latin America at a brisk pace over the past year.

Patricia Liñán joins as head of the competition law practice from Bird & Bird, where she practiced as a partner. Prior to that she was a partner and head of the competition law department at CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo, the Spanish arm of CMS.

Her most recent work has focused on damages claims, and advice and training on antitrust compliance issues, ECIJA said in a statement.

Borja Díaz-Guerra, a new partner in corporate, M&A and private equity, joins from the Spanish firm Benow Partners, where he was a partner and head of corporate/M&A. He previously practiced at Baker McKenzie and CMS, as well as with the in-house legal department at Deloitte.

His practice focuses on corporate transactions, investment and divestment processes, and corporate restructurings, according to ECIJA.

“The incorporation of Patricia to strengthen our Competition Law area is another step forward in our strategic commitment to multidisciplinary growth,” Alejandro Touriño, managing partner of ECIJA, said in a statement.

He added that the arrival of Díaz-Guerra was part of a plan “to continue growing in corporate, adding new partners to our team in Madrid throughout 2021.”

The arrival of the two new partners furthers ECIJA’s worldwide growth strategy, which focused on Latin America last year with the absorption of firms in Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico, and partner hires in Brazil, Costa Rica and El Salvador. 

Latin America now makes up almost 42% of the firm’s revenue, ECIJA said in January. The firm counts 128 partners and more than 660 professionals in the Americas, Spain and Portugal.