Ecija

Estudio Jurídico Otero and ECIJA, the leading legal firm in Spain and Europe, have reached an association agreement that will allow us to improve and expand the services we provide to you, our clients, in addition to promoting our growth, integrating visions and experience and being part of a of the most outstanding networks of legal studies at the international level.

With more than 22 years of experience, ECIJA is one of the most important law firms worldwide, being recognized by The Lawyer 2019 as the Best TMT Firm in Europe and highlighted by The Financial Times among the 10 most innovative firms in that continent. ECIJA is in the Top 10 of the best firms in Spain, according to the prestigious rankings of Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500.

ECIJA has a team of 150  partners and more than 750 professionals worldwide, distributed in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Chile, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Panama, Mexico, China, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.

For its part, Estudio Jurídico Otero is a firm with more than 90 years of experience and recognized prestige in Chile.

The integration of Estudio Jurídico Otero and ECIJA is part of the strategic plan of growth and international projection and allows us to complement our expertise in the traditional areas of legal services, along with further strengthening and deepening the areas of information technology, protection data, privacy, intellectual property, TMT (technology, media and telecommunications), in which Estudio Otero and ECIJA have been recognized. Thus, and for the benefit of our clients, it will allow us to add to our experience that of a study that in Europe is a pioneer in currently very sensitive issues that in Chile are still incipient, such as data protection.

Main areas of practice
Corporate: the firm provides corporate and M&A services for both local and international clients. The practice in M&A is multi-jurisdictional, focused on transactions with a regional component in Latin American markets. The team is trained in legal project management tools in order to control time and cost of any transaction.

Banking and finance: the team includes prestigious attorneys who have assisted important international and local banks with sophisticated transactions. The firm’s services involve many aspects of the complex regulatory financial world, including syndicated credit facilities, project finance and banking products such as leasing, factoring, confirming, mortgages, pledges and credit cards.

Dispute resolution: ECIJA has a strong practice for dispute resolution both in local courts and arbitration. The disputes include commercial, civil, investment and government. Regarding arbitration, the firm has a regional practice of several partners with strong experience and skills in international arbitration using the ICC, AAA and UNCITRAL rules, and also with local rules in each country.

Technology and data privacy: ECIJA in one of the leading firms in LATAM for technology and data privacy practices. The team focuses on the technology industry for complex transactions, M&A and software developments.

Employment and human rights: the firm has a strong practice in employment matters from the employer perspective. The services include litigation, technology issues related to the employment, company’s restructuring, immigration and compliance. ECIJA’s practice in human rights is focused on compliance with international standards in five areas: gender, age, functional diversity, social origin, and diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Administrative and infrastructure: the services provided by ECIJA range from managing regulatory aspects of the relationship from the regulatory point of view between the client and the government throughout the execution of agreements with public entities.

Energy: ECIJA is one of the most recognized and acknowledged law firms in the structuring and development of energy projects in the Central American region because of its vast experience in the field. The services include regulatory aspects related to obtaining licenses and authorizations, as well as the contractual aspects of negotiating agreements for electricity purchase with distribution companies. The relevant experience and knowledge of energy project developments also covers construction and financing agreements.

Trusts: the firm has advised regional and foreign clients in connection with the incorporation of trust companies, the opening of internal trust departments and the design of business transactions which employ trust structures, including philanthropic, administration, guaranty, and real estate development trusts. Likewise, ECIJA have advised local banks in connection with the implementation of trust operations that include financing structures.

Competition/merger control: ECIJA advises large US, European and Latin American corporations in antitrust and merger control investigations at national and cross-border level. Clients come from several sectors, having strong expertise in regulated industries such as telecoms and ICTs.

Foreign investment: ECIJA has a regional legal team that is prepared to advise foreign investors on how to structure their investment in any country of the region, including aspects such as obtaining the benefits of various tax incentive regimes and dealing with customs issues that come up when importing or exporting goods and services.

Real estate: ECIJA is a well-known player in the real estate market in Latin America.  The team has developed special capacities in the development of multi-purpose projects, including housing, commercial, offices and leisure spaces.  ECIJA provides its services to developers of projects up to individual investors willing to have a second home or retirement place.  ECIJA advises the developers from the acquisition of the land through the permit process until a final product is delivered to the customers, acting as a business partner of its clients with the tools of legal project management.  The practice is fulfilled with the experience of the partners in the construction industry.

Tax: ECIJA is a team of strongly committed professionals reputed to thoroughly address their clients’ needs involving taxation.  ECIJA provides insightful advice on local and international tax issues pertaining to businesses endeavors and personal concerns.  In addition, they are effective litigators and have obtained significant awards on tax claims and suits, on behalf of their clients.

ECIJA’s lax Law practice focuses in two main areas: legal advice and litigation, for both national and municipal taxes.  ECIJA’s legal advice area ​provides specialized advisory services, tax contingencies analysis and tax planning.  The litigation area ​handles tax claims in the administrative venue and judiciary processes.  International taxation queries ​are also prevalent.  The current international investment surge has triggered an array of tax advisory services in connection with international tax issues.

Energy|oil and gas: ECIJA is one of the most recognized and acknowledged law firms in the structuring and development of energy and oil and gas projects in Central America, Caribbean and in Ecuador. ECIJA has participated in the development and execution of the main projects in the energy and oil and gas sector in the region: Coca Cola Sinclair 1500 MW of electricity generation with the company Sinohydro. The services include regulatory aspects relating to obtaining licenses and authorisations, as well as the contractual aspects of negotiating agreements for electricity purchase with distribution companies.