Lacouture & Asociados S.A.S.

Lacouture & Asociados is a Bogotá-based boutique specialising in white-collar crime. Its practice covers economic and business criminal law, asset forfeiture (extinción de dominio), criminal compliance and crisis management. Founded in October 2024 and led by Armando Lacouture, the firm acts for domestic and international companies, their directors and officers, and individuals in criminal matters, which often carry financial, regulatory or reputational consequences. It regularly advises companies in sectors such as oil and gas and fuel distribution, energy, mining, industrial, agribusiness and export, insurance, public utilities, and ports and infrastructure.

Core practice

Before the Fiscalía and the courts

• Criminal defence of directors, officers and other individuals in investigations and trials.

• Representation of companies and individuals as victims of crime, including the recovery of losses within the criminal proceeding.

• Protection of companies against adverse decisions in criminal proceedings, including opposing their joinder as civilly liable third parties.

• Asset forfeiture proceedings, acting for affected owners and good-faith third parties.

Within the company

• Internal investigations and criminal due diligence.

• Compliance programmes, including SAGRILAFT (AML/CFT) and PTEE (anti-bribery and anti-corruption), and criminal-risk assessments.

• Crisis management: Armando Lacouture directs the legal and communications response, including dealings with authorities and third parties, steers the internal investigation and turns its findings into compliance enhancements.

How the firm works

Armando Lacouture leads every mandate personally, supported by his team. As the same facts often give rise to parallel actions before the Superintendencies, the Comptroller General, the Inspector General or the tax authority, the firm designs each criminal strategy so that what happens in one forum does not undermine the client’s position in another. On cross-border matters, he has worked alongside counsel in the United States, England, the Netherlands and Spain.

Recognition

• The Legal 500 Latin America 2026: Firms to watch, Compliance and white-collar crime; Armando Lacouture, Next Generation Partner (previously Rising Star, Latin America 2024).

• Legal 500 Colombia Awards shortlists: Up-and-coming Firm of the Year (2027); Armando Lacouture, Compliance Next Generation Partner of the Year (2026 and 2027).

• Exclusive contributor for Colombia to The Legal 500’s Legal Landscapes: White Collar Crime (2025 and 2026).

Complementary areas

For matters beyond its core practice, the firm works with trusted of counsel, with Armando Lacouture as the client’s point of contact, in civil and commercial litigation and domestic arbitration, public law, infrastructure and state contracting, and corporate and commercial law.