Baker & McKenzie, the world’s leading global law firm, and Estudio Echecopar, the leading Peruvian law firm, today announced that Estudio Echecopar has agreed to join Baker & McKenzie. With this, Baker & McKenzie becomes the first global law firm to establish an office in the fast-rising Andean nation.
Established in 1950, Estudio Echecopar employs more than 200 lawyers and staff. It is highly regarded for its practices in banking and finance, M&A, mining and energy, foreign investment, privatization, arbitration and litigation, administrative law, employment, tax, civil law, capital markets and project finance and was named Chambers Peruvian Law Firm of the Year in 2011. With this agreement, Baker & McKenzie now has 15 offices in seven countries in Latin America, with Peru representing the Firm’s 72nd office in 45 countries.
“Clients increasingly are looking to Latin America — and especially the promising nations of the Andean Three — for growth opportunities as well as resources,” said Eduardo Leite, chairman of Baker & McKenzie’s Executive Committee. “We have worked with the talented lawyers of Estudio Echecopar for more than a decade and could not have found a stronger team to help us meet our clients’ growing needs.”
Leite noted that the economies of the so-called Andean Three — Peru, Chile and Colombia — are projected to grow faster than Brazil and Mexico over the next five years. The three nations have developed close free-trade ties and have even merged their stock exchanges to facilitate investment.
“The combination of our rich local knowledge and experience with the global resources and reach of Baker & McKenzie will open new doors for our domestic clients and create opportunities for our lawyers and staff to serve an expanded roster of international companies eager to grow in Peru,” said Ismael Noya, managing partner of Estudio Echecopar.
Lima is Baker & McKenzie’s fifth new office in the past 2 years. The other new offices include: Casablanca, Johannesburg, Istanbul and Doha. The Firm now has offices in 26 of the world’s 30 largest economies.
