Spanish law firm ECIJA has launched in Peru after combining with Lima-based Berninzon & Benavides Abogados.  

The move, which builds on earlier alliances ECIJA has established across Latin America, brings four new partners and 28 other professionals to the rapidly-growing firm. 

It follows Spanish private equity firm Alia Capital Partners investing in a minority share of ECIJA earlier this year and its launch in Uruguay last year. The firm’s Latin America practice now covers 14 countries and Puerto Rico. 

“Latin America remains a pivotal focus for us and ECIJA is thrilled to welcome the talented partners and professionals of Berninzon & Benavides to our organisation,” said Alejandro Touriño, managing partner of ECIJA.

“With our arrival in Peru, we have expanded our presence in the region, in a key territory for many of our clients,” he added. “This move solidifies our position as a leading firm in Latin America and enhances our ability to serve our clients.”

The partners at Berninzon & Benavides work across areas including corporate law, M&A, arbitration, construction and commercial litigation.

Eduardo Benavides, managing partner of ECIJA Peru, said the integration was “a very important step that will allow us to expand our portfolio of services and respond to our clients’ growing demands for more sophisticated services and an international presence”. 

For its part ECIJA has grown lawyer headcount by 20% over the past three years, and including the Peru team now has 220 partners and around 1,200 professionals. 

The firm’s global revenue in 2023 was €91.8m, around one-third of which came from Latin America. ECIJA said it expects that to increase to €100m by the end of 2024, and aims to have revenue of €150m by 2028. 

The firm was founded in the 1990’s as a specialist in TMT and IP law but in recent years become a full-service firm across Iberia and then Latin America. In 2022 it announced it was to become the first Spanish law firm to operate as a verein and last year unveiled a strategic alliance with top 20 UK firm Taylor Wessing, through which it has brought on clients including Amazon and Lufthansa, according to a report in American Lawyer. 

ECIJA’s Latin American practice now has offices in Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as Peru.