-
Tier 1
Tier 2
Notable
-
Active
-
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Notable
-
Tier 2
Tier 3
Notable
Nassar Abogados was founded in 1982 and has offices in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The main office is in Costa Rica.
Focusses / specialisms
The industries that the firm has the most presence in are finance and manufacturing, but it is also active in healthcare, telecommunications, technology and commerce.
In banking and finance, the firm advises credit lenders and financers in a wide variety of industries.
In M&A, the firm mostly advises buyers in asset acquisition and merger transactions, as well as corporate and regulatory matters.
Key clients
Key clients for the firm include Visa, IBM, Prival Bank, PRO Unlimited, Phoenix Tower International and Textron Finance.
Research period review: 32nd edition (2022/2023)
This past research period, the M&A team was actively busy. The team represented both buyers and targets in acquisitions and mergers across several industries including technology and manufacturing.
The team also worked on some banking transactions, namely representing borrowers in financing arrangements.
Deal highlights: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
Phoenix Tower International $2 billion financing
UFP Technologies acquisition of Advant Medical
Client feedback: 33rd edition (2022/2023)
Financial services regulatory
“Direct personal attention and comprehensive knowledge.”
M&A
“Nassar's team is very organized, the team is very proficient in local legislation and in the attention to international clients.”
Tomas Nassar Jr.
“Experience and seniority, deep relationships at high administration and government levels.”
“Tomas is a great leader for the team, his advice is always precise and easy to follow for clients. He provides advice and service beyond what is quoted for clients and promotes for the service of the entire team to be detail oriented.”
Consortium Legal is a distinguished full-service law firm operating throughout Central America, renowned for delivering exceptional client service. The firm excels in several key industries, including banking, construction and materials, food and beverage, and tourism. In the realm of banking and finance, Consortium Legal primarily advises lenders on loan and credit facilities, with a focus on refinancing and project financing. In mergers and acquisitions (M&A), the firm provides strategic counsel to buyers and sellers involved in asset acquisitions and merger transactions.
Highlights
Consortium Legal advised on two major regional transactions in 2024. The firm represented Grupo Romero in a potential joint venture with Mobilaire Latam, conducting extensive due diligence on 24 companies and 84 properties across Central America. This large-scale review involved assessing corporate structures, governance, and real estate compliance to design risk mitigation strategies and structure the partnership. Additionally, Consortium advised Oceanica International Group on the sale of its Central American operations, preparing a comprehensive vendor due diligence report and ensuring regulatory compliance to facilitate a smooth divestment in the freight forwarding sector. Both transactions underscore Consortium’s expertise in managing complex, multi-jurisdictional deals and delivering strategic solutions for clients expanding or restructuring their regional presence.
Key Clients
Bancolombia, Banco Davivienda Costa Rica, Coliers, Corona, El Arreo, Rappi, Transunion Costa Rica, TriCal Group, US Pharmacy and Volaris
BLP is a Costa Rican firm founded in 2003. It boasts a large regional footprint with offices in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, in addition to a Spanish representative office. The firm is a member of the Meritas and Interlaw networks of law firms. The banking and finance group advises on innovative transactions, attending to local and international deals on the behalf of private equity groups and commercial banks. The team advises borrowers and lenders on among the largest and most complex deals in Costa Rica.
Lexincorp is a regional Central American firm with offices in Costa RIca, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm is active in banking and finance where it advises banks on regional international lending and in real estate where it represents domestic and international companies on acquisitions and development.
Key clients
Key clients include Banco Industrial, BAC Latam and Novelteak.
Founded in 2000, Olller Abogados is a San José-based firm.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm advises clients in a variety of industries on corporate and M&A matters. The firm is also active in the project development space, where it emphasizes the representation of contractors and project companies with a focus on the sectors of aviation, energy, pharmaceuticals and technology.
Key clients
Among the firm’s key clients are Acciona Agua, Constructura Navarro y Avilés and Promed Cancer Therapies.
Founded in 1997, BG&A Abogados Corporativos is housed in San José.
Focusses/ specialisms
The firm specializes in corporate and M&A matters. The firm is also involved in the project development space.
In the corporate space, the firm regularly advises national and international clients in incorporations.
The firm’s M&A practice includes acquirer and seller representation.
Key clients
Key firm clients include Colegio de San Luis Gonzaga, Hotel Planas, the Municipality of San José, Office Depot, Universidad Internacional Sek de Ecuador and Plasma Innova.
Client feedback: 32nd edition (2022/2023)
Project development
“There are many positive aspects: teamwork, the training of its specialists, the efficiency in the processes, the agility in the immediacy of the information, and the use of new technologies for customer service.”
“Instant answers to our queries”
Founded in 2003, Central Law is comprised of a network of offices across Central America. Its Costa Rica locations are in Cóbano, Escazú, Santa Cruz and San José. The firm is active in the M&A practice, in addition to providing regulatory and corporate governance representation. Its team boasts specialized knowledge of numerous sectors, including but not limited to food and beverage, hospitality, insurance, pharmaceuticals and technology.
Deloitte Legal’s Costa Rica office is found in the country’s Heredia province.
Focusses/ specialisms
The firm is noted for its activity in the financial and corporate sphere, namely in the practice areas of M&A and corporate restructuring. The firm’s M&A team holds representation experience on both sides of complex corporate transactions.
Key clients
Key firm clients include Abbott, Alticor, Amway, Belcorp, Maersk, Marriott, McDonald’s, Nutrien AG, Roche and Unilever.
Founded in 1942 in El Salvador by Dr. Francisco Armando Arias, Arias is a law firm rooted in humanistic principles and values of honesty, integrity, and professionalism. Renowned for its banking and finance expertise, the firm also excels in M&A and project development. Arias represents strategic buyers and sellers across various industries in acquisitions and restructurings, as well as borrowers and lenders in banking matters, including loan and credit agreements. Committed to quality legal services, Arias strives to innovate and lead in the legal and business world.
Highlights
The firm advised on various matters, including complex bond issuances, acquisition structures, and SPACs with significant social and environmental impacts. Notably, they facilitated an innovative Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreement between Emergent and the Republic of Costa Rica. Through the LEAF Coalition, they helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by uniting government and corporate demand for high-quality, verified “REDD+” emissions reductions from tropical forest countries.
Key Clients
Key clients include Snowflake, TWO- Hennessy Capital Group, Univar, FreeBalance, Bank of America, The Toronto Dominion Bank, Athelia Sustainable Ocean Fund Enfragen Management Services
Testimonials
“Responsible, understand the business, prompt response, legal knowledge” (M&A)
“They always provide solutions and proposals for alternate ways we can work around different things. Their regional reach in Central America, Colombia, and Argentina has also been great. Last but not least, their steadfast and quick replies are very helpful.” (Financial Services Regulatory)
Founded in 1997, ECIJA is a global, Iberian-American firm with initial roots in Spain. Since its conception, it has expanded to include 30 offices in 16 countries across the western hemisphere, in addition to maintaining an international China desk. The firm maintains two Costa Rican outfits, with one in the Escazú district of San José and the other located in Guanacaste. The firm is noted for its ability in a diversity of practices including finance, M&A, real estate, restructuring and project development. Across practice areas, it emphasizes the industry sectors of energy, pharmaceuticals and software.
EY Law is a global powerhouse with over 700 offices in more than 150 countries, including Central America. Committed to delivering top-notch insights and services to their clients, the firm excels in the M&A sphere and other corporate practice areas. Their M&A team primarily focuses on representing acquirers, though they also advocate for sellers. Renowned for their financial, corporate, and project development work, EY Law frequently collaborates across borders with other Central American offices. With extensive experience in M&A, the firm adeptly represents both strategic buyers and sellers in acquisitions and general corporate matters. Additionally, EY Law boasts significant expertise in the infrastructure sector.
Highlights
The firm advised their clients on a wide variety of confidential and complex matters that involved multiple jurisdictions.
Key Clients
Key clients include Inchape, Grupo Comeca, Grupo Sur, General Mills, Expeditors International, Roche Services Americas
Batalla is a law firm in Costa Rica that works in collaboration with three other firms in Central America. It was established in 2001.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm advises on corporate work, particularly project development in the energy and public infrastructure sectors.
Key clients
Key clients include China Harbour Engineering Costa Rica, Enel Green Energy, International Development Bank and CEMEX.
Client feedback: 31st edition (2020/2021)
Investment funds: Private equity funds
"They are proactive and keep up-to-date on all topics important to an investor such as our private equity fund. In addition, they are easy to access and quite efficient at getting things done."
Project development
"Extremely passionate. Committed to the task. Effort on understanding the customers' industry."
PPP/PFI
"The Battala firm is very focused on instruction and definitions."
Project development: Energy
"In the project that we are working on, environmental risk assessment is very important - at Batalla they have specialists in environmental law."
Founded in 1942, Facio & Cañas is a Costa Rican full-service firm located in San José.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm advises local and international clients alike in connection with corporate structuring, M&A and project development deals. In the M&A space, the firm is active on both the acquirer and seller side.
Key clients
Key firm clients include Boston Consulting Group, Conair, GlaxoSmithKline, Nevro Corporation and Vertiv.
Founded in 2012, Sfera Legal boasts a network of offices throughout Central America and beyond, including locations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and a US outfit in New York. The firm features five offices in Costa Rica alone.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm is active in M&A and project development.
In M&A, the firm represents corporate clients in all roles and across all transaction types.
The project development group principally, though not exclusively, represents developers and concessionaires across several sectors.
Key clients
Key firm clients include Bambu Development, Coopeleche, Grupo Zen and Lucas Ingenieros.
Arias is the leading global business law firm in Central America and the firm of choice in the region. The firm stands out for providing innovative and effective solutions that help clients achieve their business goals, while enjoying the benefits of working with an integrated firm, with presence in six countries through seven offices, 41 partners, and 130 highly trained and experienced attorneys and offices in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Since 1942, Arias has been setting the standards in the region by combining its global reach with local expertise, and providing a visionary outlook on the world’s business environment.
Our team: Among our staff, we have attorneys with many years of experience in several practice areas combined with young lawyers. This means our firm is constantly innovating and adapting to the needs of today’s world, which ensures we are able to offer our clients the best legal talent in the region.
Areas of practice: Arias is a full-service firm, providing advice in over 35 practice areas, with renowned specialists in each jurisdiction. Some of the firm’s main practice areas include: corporate, antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, tax, arbitration and litigation, compliance, banking and finance, intellectual property, labor law, energy, oil and gas, real estate, immigration, and general counsel services, among others.
Our focus: We make things happen. We provide creative and innovative legal solutions that add value to our clients, taking the time to know and understand their business goals, while always focused on providing reliable and accurate legal services, with their best interests in mind.
International reach: The firm advises on local and cross-border transactions, assisting some of the major international corporations doing business in the region, and also providing legal support to local clients going abroad.
Recognitions and awards: Consistently, we have been honored with important recognitions and awards such as “Firm of the Year in Central America”, “Firm of the year” in the countries we operate, “Client Service Award”, “Best Regional Firm for Women in Business Law”, “Deal of the Year”, among other relevant regional and local awards for the firm and our members.
Equal opportunities: We promote diversity within the firm, professional growth is based on each individual’s merit regardless of gender or ethnics.
47% of our partners are women
48% of our associates are women
57% of our management positions are held by women
100% of our managing partners are women
2,000 Pro-bono hours per year: Corporate social responsibility and Pro-bono work have always been an important part of our DNA. We believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to inspire and generate positive changes in our environment in order to achieve and ensure a better future for the next generations.
We provide legal solutions for your business in Central America.
We are the only law firm with specialized lawyers dedicated exclusively to their practice areas in the five countries of the Central American region, guaranteeing the highest standard of technical quality for our clients. We have the largest team in the Central American region with +200 lawyers located in 9 offices in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; which gives us the ability to offer personalized attention in high volume regional matters through a single point of contact for your regional needs, providing you with an agile and efficient coordination that results in a standardized and effective final product.
Discover more on our website.
EY Law is an international law firm, part of EY global organization, with over 3.400 lawyers in 94 countries throughout the world.
EY Law operates as a single integrated regional firm where our services offerings and teams are determine based on specialty practices and industries. In Central America the firm has more than 50 lawyers with offices in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
EY Law offers a unique approach by delivering legal services that help minimise the gap between business advisors and legal counsel. Its lawyers work integrated with professionals from other service lines of EY, including local and international tax, strategic and financial advisory and investment banking, in order to provide to its clients integral value-added professional services. The Costa Rican team is regarded among the best in the country, with a high-profile clientele comprised of multinational, regional and local clients doing business in Central America and abroad. The firm has recently reinforced its team and expanded its service offering, with strategic recruitments in different ranks and sectors, to cope with new demands and needs of its clients. Such is the case with data protection and data privacy, controversy, infrastructure and financial services. The firm has also built a strong digital platform of Legal Managed Services, as a tool to provide value to its clients including GCs and in-house counsel, bringing high-end technology to the offering of legal services.
Through its global reach, EY Law’s multidisciplinary teams provide effective cross-border legal counsel to its clients, procuring effective solutions to multi-jurisdictional challenges by rendering a uniform and consolidated approach.
EY Law represents important multinational and regional clients — including numerous Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries: automotive and transportation, banking, capital markets and insurance, consumer products and retail, government and public sector, health and life sciences, power and utilities, private equity, real estate and hospitality, technology, media and entertainment and telecom.
Practice areas:
Asset Planning & Family Business, Banking and Financial Services, Competition & Consumer Protection, Digital, Energy, Environmental, Government Procurement, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Trade & Customs, Labour and Employment, Litigation & Arbitration, Legal Operational Services, Real Estate & Hospitality, Tax, Telecommunications, Transactions.
