Gallego Lawyers

Founder and Managing Partner

Founder and Managing Partner of Gallego Lawyers, heading the firm's Energy, Banking & Financial, and Environmental Law practices since 1995.

Dr. Helmuth Gallego founded Gallego Lawyers in Bogotá in 1995, after completing his doctorate in banking law at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Rather than remain in Germany, where he had begun his career at Dresdner Bank, he returned to Colombia to build a firm grounded in the same scientific rigor he had encountered in German legal training, a rigor he still expects of every lawyer at the firm today. For over a decade he also taught commercial and capital markets law at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and he continues to advise German, Austrian, Swiss, and Colombian clients on complex cross-border matters spanning corporate structuring, banking regulation, and foreign exchange compliance. A former scholarship holder of the Catholic Academic Exchange Service (KAAD), he is today a sponsor of the KAAD's Hermann Weber Scholarship, and was awarded the KAAD's Bene Merenti Medal in 2025.

CV:

• • Founder and Managing Partner, Gallego Lawyers (1995–present); Head of Energy Law, Environmental Law, and Banking & Financial Law practices

• • Professor of Commercial Law, Economic Private Law, Capital Markets, and International Contracting, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (1996–2013); former Director, Private Law Department, Ph.D. in Law Program

• • Formerly served as a Category A Arbitrator, Center for Arbitration and Conciliation, Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, for Corporate and Banking Law disputes

Recent representative matters, 2025–2026, include advising:

• • A UK-headquartered renewable energy investment platform on cross-border foreign exchange compliance and corporate structuring across Colombia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, in a financing of approximately USD 100 million

• • One of Colombia's largest banks on the international investment and securities regulatory aspects of a landmark banking sector integration

• • A leading Colombian trust company on a first-of-its-kind foreign exchange compliant real estate trust structure for international investors

Spanish, German, English

• - German-Colombian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Colombia), member since 1998

• - IR Global, exclusive member for Corporate Law in Colombia since 2014

• - Sponsor of the Hermann Weber Scholarship, Catholic Academic Exchange Service (KAAD), Germany, and Recipient of the Bene Merenti Medal, KAAD (2025)

• • Doctor juris (Dr. jur.) in Banking Law, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

• • LL.M. in Private Law, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

• • Law Degree (Abogado), Universidad Externado de Colombia

Mr. Gallego's main leisure activities are reading, traveling, and spending time with his family and friends.