Leading Spanish firm Pérez-Llorca has announced plans to open an office in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

The firm said it is refurbishing a 2,000 square-metre building in the city to serve as its office, where it will gradually build a team from summer 2024.

The planned launch furthers the Spanish heavyweight’s international expansion, which kickstarted back in 2014 with the launch of an office in London and has since seen the firm set up shop in New York, Brussels and Singapore. 

“The Lisbon office, which will practise Portuguese law, will increase the work that the firm has already been carrying out in this market in order to cover the entire Iberian Peninsula and build upon the synergies that arise in both countries to be able to offer clients and potential clients comprehensive advice on their transactions and disputes,” Pérez-Llorca said in a statement. “Likewise, this office will also serve as a bridge to strengthen the firm’s relationship with the Brazilian market and other Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions.”

A firm spokesperson declined to specify who will lead the new office, though in June the firm brought in M&A partner Gonçalo Godinho in Madrid to lead on developing the firm’s strategy in Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking markets. 

Godinho, who has since relocated to Lisbon, brings more than 20 years of experience in the Brazilian, Portuguese, British and US markets and specialises in M&A in various sectors, particularly in energy and infrastructure and private equity.

The vast majority of Pérez-Llorca’s more than 300 lawyers are based in its two Madrid offices, while a team of around 30 also work out of its Barcelona arm.

Its launch of an office in Singapore earlier this year, led by newly-minted corporate partner Pablo Hontoria – who helped establish the firm’s New York office in 2015 – saw it become what it claims is the first Spanish law firm to have a base in the Asian city state.

Meantime Barcelona-based rival Cuatrecasas has also been making moves in Portugal recently, absorbing local firm Serra Lopes, Cortes Martins & Associado into its Lisbon office late last year in a move that saw it add 250 professionals. 

Madrid-based firm Garrigues also said today that it had hired partner João Lima Cluny in Lisbon from Portuguese firm Morais Leitão to lead its criminal law and internal investigations offering in Portugal.