Philippi Prietocarrizosa & Uría, which has offices in Santiago, Bogota and Barranquilla and practice areas including banking and finance, corporate and M&A, labor and litigation, is stepping into Peru through a merger with local firms Ferrero Abogados and Delmar Ugarte. This brings the firm’s total partner count to 44 and lawyer count to 319. The Peruvian office will itself have 29 partners and 99 lawyers.
“This is a first major step in what we had from start announced, which was our presence in the [Pacific Alliance] region: Chile, Peru and Colombia. We think this a basic background that we needed. We are very happy that we have achieved this result in such a short span,” said Juan Francisco Gutierrez, co-chair of PPU. A year ago, PPU was created when Colombian firm Prietocarrizosa merged with Chilean firm Philippi Yrarrázaval Pulido & Brunner and maintained an association with Uría Menéndez, a Spanish law firm. The firm’s association with Uría Menéndez also allows it to have a reach in Spain, São Paulo, New York, Portugal, London, Beijing, and Brussels.
Guillermo Ferrero, managing partner of Ferrero Abogados, explained that he was drawn to the opportunity to be a part of an entity with 319 lawyers as well as the opportunity to have a presence in Chile and Colombia. “We are extremely happy to merge locally with Delmar Ugarte, which has expertise in infrastructure projects, an area which we didn’t have," he said. Manuel Ugarte, partner at Delmar Ugarte Abogados, also highlighted the opportunity to be a part of an entity with a presence in Peru, Chile and Colombia
Ferrero also pointed to the importance of the move in light of the Pacific Alliance, formed between Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico in 2011. ”There is a lot of economic integration, between those jurisdictions, there is capital inflow and capital outflow going on a regular basis,” Ferrero noted. The firm is also looking to expand into Mexico, in the future.