Following the departure of its cofounder Ricardo Cevallos on February 14, Consortium’s El Salvador office has merged with a young boutique, Benjamín Valdez & Asociados. El Salvador's first boutique law firm, Benjamín Valdez specializes in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and banking and finance. During its second year in the market, the boutique experienced some shakeup as two partners, Roberto Molina and Roberto Díaz, left in November 2012 and February 2013, respectively.
The Consortium office has added three new partners, four associates, and several paralegals and administrative staff. Partners Benjamin Miguel Valdez Tamayo, Luis Bernardo Tévez Rivas, and Benjamín Valdez Iraheta expanded the firm’s partnership to eight. The merger will boost the corporate/M&A, banking and finance, labor, and litigation practices.
“They share our values and work ethic,” commented Diego Martín-Menjívar, a Consortium partner. “We concluded that they were the best fit. We have been working with them recently. El Salvador has not been in the best economic condition, but we always see them on the other side of the table. It felt right and fit like a glove.”
All of Benjamín Valdez’s clients and current work will now be handled under the Consortium name.
Martín-Menjívar said the merger was underway before Cevallos’s exit.
“Ricardo was one of the cofounders of Consortium [along with Aquiles Delgado who passed away in July 2013], but he wanted to do some changes that were not shared with other partners. He decided to leave because he didn’t have the same vision as the organization right now,” Martín-Menjívar said. “We accepted his decision and wish him the best. Consortium has grown so much and now the name stands for itself. Ricardo was a very important part of Consortium and this merger was in the works since October 2013.”