The Latin American Lawyer September 2018 LATAM MAGAZINE SEPT18 | Page 26

Special report: Central America
San Jose, Costa Rica: Many international businesses are seeking to establish
operations in the city
36 per cent of lawyers in Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
and Nicaragua say their firms
expect to expand to other
countries, according to the survey,
with one in five (21 per cent)
saying this will happen during
the next five years. However,
one in five say their firm has no
plans for further expansion in
Central America and that they
have already achieved the desired
regional coverage.
The regionalisation of legal
services is not a new phenomenon
in Central America. In fact,
in each of the countries, the
leading law firms offer regional
coverage, though the extent of
the integration is different. A
total of 64 per cent of the survey
participants said their law firm
offers pan-regional legal services
across Central America and the
Dominican Republic. Furthermore,
this trend is set to continue, as
international clients view these
markets as a single unit. Clients
feel more supported if their
operation is “covered under an
international or regional [law
firm] structure”, says Graciela
Cruz, a Honduras-based senior
associate at García & Bodán,
the only law firm of the pan-
regional players which originated
in Nicaragua, it covers four
countries, but has yet to open in
Costa Rica.
Some law firms remain fiercely
independent, primarily based in
one country while serving clients
in other countries in Central
America via a legal network
or relationship law firms. José
Roberto Romero, managing
partner at El Salvador firm
Romero Pineda & Asociados, says
that, for independent firms, the
challenge is to grow their client
base as well as attract and keep
talented and bilingual lawyers
in a highly competitive market
increasingly dominated by pan-
regional players.
Increasing efficiency and
speeding up digitalisation are
some of the ways in which
independent law firms will be able
to address the issue of growing
competition, says Jaime Senior,
24 • THE LATIN AMERICAN LAWYER • September 2018
partner at Headrick Rizik Alvarez
& Fernández in the Dominican
Republic. He adds that his law
firm will remain focussed on
its home country for at least the
next three to five years, which
echoed the views of other survey
respondents from the Dominican
Republic. “We don’t see market
demand for our local clients to
pursue regional integration, and
international clients, for the most
part, don’t focus on this issue,”
Senior says.
New laws concerning
restructuring and increased
investment in real estate and
energy mean there is potential
for litigation, banking, finance
and M&A work in the Dominican
Republic, Senior says. However,
EY Law is now the only pan-
regional Central American legal
services provider to have an office
in the country. The local member
of Central Law, DMK Lawyers,
decoupled from the regional outfit
in 2018.
Law firm mergers
Mergers among law firms in
Central America as well as
alliances with international
players from outside the region
will continue, believes Tomás
Nassar, senior partner at Nassar
Abogados, a firm that already has
offices across Central America and
has plans to expand beyond the
region to meet the requirements
Graciela Cruz, García & Bodán
www.iberianlawyer.com/latin-america