Boasting particular expertise in technology, intellectual property and trade mark matters, the retail practice group at Bird & Bird garners praise for its ability to understand the ‘challenges and risks’ of their clients businesses and to ‘integrate them into the legal solution they propose’. The team is headed by corporate and M&A expert Lourdes Ayala and Antonio Cueto, who focuses on IP, and excels in the luxury, fashion and retail, food and beverage, and hotels and leisure sub-sectors. Senior consultant Diana Sendagorta is another name to note.

Commercial, technology and IP expert Diego Ramos is the standout practitioner in DLA Piper‘s retail team, which acts for clients across the real estate, corporate, finance and public sectors. Recent work highlights included its advice to the lenders in the refinancing of the debt of El Corte Inglés, and its assistance to Happy Socks regarding an IP rights case. Orson Alcocer is another active member of the practice.

Garrigues' multidisciplinary team earns plaudits for being ‘highly specialised’, and for offering ‘quick responses from the first contact until the job is solved’. Regularly acting for clients in the fashion, cosmetics and supermarket industries, the group covers a wide range of matters arising in the retail sector. In a recent highlight, the team provided advice to Monat on the launch of the American group in the Spanish market. Corporate governance expert Sergio González Galán, Jorge García-Pellicer and senior associate María José Pardo are key members of the practice.

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo houses a ‘very knowledgeable team’, which always approaches responses ‘based on the client’s business in a very practical way’. The group, which is led by IP expert Sofía Martínez-Almeida and Iñigo Igartua, covers a variety of legal matters arising in the retail space, with a particular expertise in real estate and business structuring. Corporate and M&A partner Iñigo Erláiz, Bárbara Sainz De Vicuña and Isabela Crespo, who bring in additional expertise in intellectual property, are other key names in the practice.

Praised for its ‘strong commercial mindset’, Hogan Lovells International LLP‘s consumer and retail practice has a solid track record in advising clients on matters ranging from contracts to offline and online retail trade, advertising and marketing, and product regulatory matters, working closely with the firm’s data protection and regulatory teams. Alex Dolmans, who also leads the corporate and M&A and commercial practice in the Madrid office, heads the group, which includes skilled litigator and counsel Jon Aurrekoetxea; and senior associate Adrián Fernández.

Uría Menéndez is valued by clients for its ‘in-depth knowledge of regulations’, and for its ‘dedication and passion’, which translates into ‘creative advice’. The firm stands out for its multidisciplinary expertise in a variety of business sectors, and the retail practice works particularly closely with the food and beverage sub-group. Borja Sainz de Aja, Patricia Vidal and Ramiro Rivera head the well-rounded team, which operates from Madrid and Barcelona, regularly advising a wide range of distributors, producers and retailers from the consumer goods, fashion, food, toys and jewellery sectors.