Aguilar Castillo Love
One of the first law firms to build a region-wide practice, Aguilar Castillo Love has established an extensive platform not only in Central America but also further afield; in addition to its offices in Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, the firm now has a presence in Ecuador, Paraguay and, most recently, Bolivia, where it opened branches in Santa Cruz and La Paz in 2022. Thanks to its in-depth experience of advising international clients (and the strong international profiles of many of its lawyers), the firm is well versed in cross-border financial and corporate transactions, including project finance, debt restructurings, bond issuances and M&A. In the Costa Rica offices (located in central San José and Escazú), the key contacts are banking and finance head Marco Solano Gómez and John Aguilar-Quesada, who leads the corporate team. Juan Carlos Castillo Chacón, a market leader in energy-related deals, and up-and-coming partner Natalia Callejas Aquino oversee the Guatemala practice, while Esteban Agüero Guier and Flor De María Cortez, who has significant experience in foreign investments and free trade zone law, are the names to note in El Salvador, where the firm is commended for its fintech expertise. In Honduras, Enrique Rodríguez-Burchard and Juan José Alcerro Milla lead the corporate and finance teams, where the latter brings complementary strengths in antitrust and fintech issues. M&A expert Thelma Carrión Blandón and finance specialist Violeta Núñez head the corporate and banking departments in Nicaragua.