A Neat Package

What is your current service portfolio offering, and which services have the biggest demand in the Dominican Republic?

We are a full-service Dominican law firm. Our services include, among others, corporate law, real estate law, intellectual property, international business and commerce, litigation and alternate dispute resolution, labor and employment law, and immigration. We serve a wide range of clients in different industries such as consumer products, real estate, advertising and media, banking and insurance, industrial manufacturing, and oil and related products.

How does Esquea & Valenzuela stand out from its competitors?

We are the oldest non-family-owned law partnership in the Dominican Republic. The experience of our senior partners is an important differentiator: our members have held relevant positions in public office and the judicial branch, having worked as ambassadors, official representatives of the country at international congresses and organizations, legislators, directors of government entities, and justices. Furthermore, we have an unleveraged firm structure that allows for a more intimate attorney-client interaction. This, coupled with the firm’s perfect balance of senior and junior partners, permits us to provide the client with high quality and timely advice.

What is the current state of legal security for foreign investors in the Dominican Republic, and what can be done to improve it?

Legal security for foreign investors in the Dominican Republic (DR) is strong. The DR has a special Foreign Investment Law that recognizes foreign investment in its many tangible and intangible forms as well as its varied uses and destinations, establishes free capital mobility in inbound and outbound capital flow, and provides foreign investors with national treatment in all their investments. Moreover, the country is part of a considerable number of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (IPPAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) with various countries such as Argentina, Korea, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Finland, France, and others, which provide foreign investors with national and most-favored-nation treatment along with allowing for international arbitration for the settlement of disputes. In this regard, it is important to highlight that the Dominican congress ratified the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958.

What main challenges do law firms face in the Dominican Republic?

An important challenge when assisting a foreign investment client is providing timely services when dealing with regulating entities. This is due to the way certain ministries and municipalities establish various procedures for granting the permits that some client activities require (municipal permits, construction permits, environmental, etc.) In many occasions the procedures hinder the firms’ capacity to move the deal forward.

What are Esquea & Valenzuela’s main objectives in the Dominican Republic for 2017 and how does it plan on achieving them?

In 2017 we will continue to focus on adding value to our clients’ business dealings as well as adding value to society through the further development of the legal and business profession. This we will achieve through our partners’ contributions to the industry groups and organizations of which we are members and their time devoted to lecturing at our country’s most prestigious universities.