With this move, ECIJA reinforces its position as the Spanish law firm with the largest presence in Latin America, being in 16 territories and 27 offices.
Just two months after its landing in Argentina, ECIJA undertakes a new project in Latin America and manages to open operations in Colombia through the integration of the law firm MBCR. With this move, the Firm continues its relentless growth strategy and strengthens its leadership as the Spanish law firm with the largest presence in Latin America, adding a total of 27 offices in 16 countries, which 14 of them are in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic). It also reaches 145 partners and more than 750 professionals globally.
ECIJA’s new office in Colombia is a full-service law firm, one of the leading firms in the market in the Competition, TMT and Entertainment practices, as recognized by the international directories Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. The firm also stands out for its Intellectual Property, Corporate and M&A, National and International Arbitration and Public Policy areas. Regarding its industry focus, it has extensive experience in banking, energy, retail, utilities, urban and rural real estate, and pharmaceuticals. In the area of media and entertainment, the Firm stands out for having advised film and television productions that have been international hits on digital platforms and linear channels in different countries.
ECIJA’s team in Colombia adds 6 new partners and 30 professionals to the Firm’s global structure and will be led by Pablo Márquez, Julio Castañeda, Carlos Hugo Ramírez, Patricia Renjifo, Camilo Ramírez and Lorena Garnica. The team has first class professional credentials, having been part of, among others, the competition authority, and economic regulatory bodies in Colombia as well as holding roles as legal counsel directors for major multinationals in different sectors.
This new movement of the Firm in the American continent is due to the growth pattern of the firm in recent years, which is based on a disruptive model in the legal sector, combining owned offices and offices under management ownership, a model that departs from the traditional formats of law firms, and which has been decisive in the exponential growth of ECIJA.
In the words of Hugo Écija, founding partner and executive chairman of ECIJA: “Latin America has been and is a priority for the Firm. With the new opening in Colombia, one of the most important legal markets in the region, ECIJA not only manages to position itself as a leader in Latin America, but also strengthens its office structure to accompany its clients in their internationalization process”.
Pablo Márquez, managing partner of ECIJA Colombia, said: “We are very excited about this move, which will allow us to make a quantitative and qualitative leap in our services. Both firms share a strong expertise in information technology, media, telecommunications, and intellectual property, which will strengthen the Firm in the region”.
ECIJA, one of the Ibero-American firms that has grown the most in recent years, has incorporated a total of 7 firms to its structure since 2020, entering Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina. According to the president of ECIJA, the integration with MBCR is an important step in the internationalization strategy of the Firm and this will be followed by others that they expect to announce in the coming months.
