ECIJA

The firm: ECIJA is a European law firm with headquarters in Spain and offices in Portugal, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and El Salvador. ECIJA has a multidisciplinary team of over 750 professionals, with exceptional experience in their areas of specialization, enabled to work in different jurisdictions, with extensive knowledge of the different industries and international markets. ECIJA is a client-focused law firm with the agility and personal service of a high-end boutique firm and the multidisciplinary experience of a large firm. ECIJA is a full-service firm with significant experience and specialized in the practice areas required by international clients to invest and operate globally.

ECIJA international capacity is outstanding, the firm offers integrated cross-border advice. Since 2019, ECIJA has merged with 16 law firms and has become the largest Spanish law firm in Latin America. Nowadays, ECIJA has 29 own offices in 16 countries. Furthermore, in 2019 ECIJA signed the biggest strategic agreement between a Spanish and Chinese firm being a joint venture with the 4th largest firm in China (Grandall Law). The agreement brought together 3,500 lawyers and 54 offices in Iberia, Latin America and Asia. “To put that in perspective, that is comparable with CMS and Norton Rose Fulbright, some of the biggest firms in the world by headcount.” Law.com

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 Central America and Caribbean markets. The team is trained in legal project management tools in order to control time and cost of any transaction.

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 firms 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 focused on technology industry for complex transactions, M&A and software developments.

Employment and human rights: the firm has a strong practice on 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.

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 a several sectors, having strong expertise in regulated industries such as telecom 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 Costa Rica.  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 in Costa Rica.  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.

The opening in 2019 of the office in Flamingo, Guanacaste and in 2020 of the office in Nosara, Guanacaste, have strengthened the practice on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

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 tax law practice focuses in two main areas: legal advice and litigation, for both national and municipal taxes.  ECIJA’s legal advice ​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.