Ms Hipatia Donoso > Tobar ZVS > Quito, Ecuador > Lawyer Profile

The intellectual property practice at Tobar ZVS is characterised by its broad service offering, acting for clients on patent, trade mark, design rights and copyright matters in the context of both the national market and the Andean community framework. The ‘knowledgeable’ Alfonso Rivera leads the team – his practice is focused on anti-piracy work, while associates Mikaela Teràn and Hipatia Donoso specialise in IP infringements and portfolio management.

Tobar ZVS is among the most technologically advanced of firms – certainly in Ecuador – and even offers an online self-service facility (“ExponentiaLaw”) for certain matters. On the corporate front, the eight-strong practice group handles the full spectrum of corporate and transactional work, including corporate design, restructuring and governance, project financing and M&A, for a diverse client roster primarily drawn from the construction, infrastructure, mining, pharmaceuticals, media, food, beverage, and energy & natural resources sectors. Managing partner Bernardo Tobar (the driving force behind the firm’s technological advances) is the key figure and practice head for corporate matters – his practice encompasses M&A, private equity, financing, corporate structuring, investment protection and risk management; his recent mandates include advising Flower Investment Capital Fund on a number of acquisitions in the exports sector. Also at partner level, Alvaro Sevilla is head of the firm’s competition and antitrust practice but also undertakes the structuring of legal business vehicles, commercial contracting, M&A and project finance. Significant associate suport is provided by senior Hipatia Donoso, who assists with M&A, handles data protection and is director of the firm’s legaltech department; and associate Ana Mogollón, who divides her time between corporate matters and dispute resolution. Former senior associate Agustin Mora-Bowen left to join Greenberg Traurig LLP as a foreign associate in early 2022 and is currently pursuing his LLM at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. In other significant developments, May 2022 saw the firm announce that it had entered into a strategic alliance with global-insurance firm Kennedys.