ECIJA DVMS

The firm: ECIJA is a European law firm with headquarters in Spain and offices in Portugal, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and El Salvador. ECIJA has a multidisciplinary team of over 300 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 is specialized in the practice areas required by international clients to invest and operate in Central America and the Caribbean.

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

Banking and finance: the team includes prestigious attorneys who have assisted important international and local banks with sophisticated transactions. The firm’s services involve many aspects of the complex regulatory financial world, including syndicated credit facilities, project finance and banking products such as leasing, factoring, confirming, mortgages, pledges and credit cards.

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 focuses on the technology industry for complex transactions, M&A and software developments.

Employment and human rights: the firm has a strong practice in employment matters from the employer perspective. The services include litigation, technology issues relating to employment, company 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.

Trusts: the firm has advised regional and foreign clients in connection with the incorporation of trust companies, the opening of internal trust departments and the design of business transactions which employ trust structures, including philanthropic, administration, guaranty, and real estate development trusts. Likewise, ECIJA has advised local banks in connection with the implementation of trust operations that include financing structures.

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.