Muñiz, Olaya, Meléndez, Castro, Ono & Herrera Abogados

Muñiz, Olaya, Meléndez, Castro, Ono & Herrera, founded in 1981, has considerable professional experience and is the largest law office in Peru. Our lawyers have graduated from the most prestigious Peruvian universities and many of them hold a MA from leading US and European universities. Our lawyers have worked on training programmes for leading foreign law offices such as Chadbourne & Parke; Proskauer; Shearman & Sterling; Jones Day, Holland & Knight; and Dechert.

Our firm tries to develop a solid commitment and a long-term relationship with its clients in order to become identified with their business objectives and offer the necessary professional support, coupled with experience, creativity and common sense. The firm assigns a lawyer, known as an ‘attaché’, to each client. The attaché is responsible for direct contact with the client and for seeking the most efficient and cost-effective strategy to be applied in each specific case.

Muñiz is a member of the Pacific Rim Advisory Council (PRAC), an organisation that groups together over 32 of the most important Pacific Rim law offices. The firm is also a member of Interact Law, a network, founded in 1990, of independent firms in 47 countries. In Peru, it has been the first law firm to decentralise its operations, opening branches in the cities of Trujillo, Arequipa, Ica, Chincha, Piura, Cusco, Chiclayo, Tacna, Ilo, Puno and Juliaca.

Furthermore, Muñiz was the first law firm in Peru to open a dedicated accounting service to meet the needs of companies, which now require coordinated legal and accounting advice. In view of the new criteria of the income tax law regarding the transfer-pricing regime, the firm also set up Muñiz Transfer Pricing. Furthermore, there is Semigra, a company that provides migration consultancy and handles administrative procedures for expatriated workers. The firm also set up an alliance with Intedya, a well-known Spanish company with presence in 16 countries that focuses on implementing compliance programmes at several companies.

Our quality control and customer services department was the first, and probably still the only one, in the legal market. This department is in charge of staying in contact with clients to know how satisfied they are with the service they received. The pandemic showed how well-prepared the firm was to face tough circumstances. Many of our lawyers are working remotely on a permanent basis.

We adhered to the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative that supports companies to do business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with ten principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.  We are strongly involved in several initiatives linked to pro bono work and social responsibility. For instance, Muñiz helps Operación Sonrisa, a non-profit medical service organisation that provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children.

The firm has also set up a Diversity Committee which is in charge of receiving complaints of discrimination because of race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc. Since 2019, Estudio Muñiz is a member of the Aequales Community, Latin America’s largest network of private and public entities, which aims to achieve gender equality supporting companies in their path to equality, sharing practices, and generating a social impact.