These legal firms help investors doing business in Colombia navigate uncertainties and provide local expertise to give them peace of mind and ensure successful operations.
Sergio Michelsen
Senior Partner, Brigard Urrutia (BU)
Thanks to the firm’s size and trajectory, BU has contributed to the design of Colombia’s regulatory framework. We can provide certainty about the spirit of the law and in terms of how it is interpreted in congress. Other practitioners do not have that knowledge simply because they were not involved in the design of the law. Additionally, projects of national interest often involve liaising at the international level, which makes BU’s identity as a global firm especially relevant. The firm can draw experience from similar processes elsewhere to strengthen advisory. Being a national firm with an international spirit enhances our reputation. BU has a close connection with the business community, which this means we can provide advisory from both a legal and business sense. We can communicate better and express succinctly what companies must do in order to bring their projects to fruition. When you understand their mindset, you immediately become their ally. As well as being business-oriented, we focus strongly on professional excellency. A law firm is basically the people. We are rigorous with selection in order to ensure every client receives the best service. Finally, employee talent is our number-one priority.
Ángela Salazar
Partner, Lloreda & Camacho
Lloreda Camacho is a leading innovative law firm. We have more than 80 years of experience working side by side with our clients and building successful legal strategies customized for them. Our goal is to always be at the top of the legal market. What makes us different and stand out from other firms is, without doubt, our top-notch team. We are a group of 150 individuals, comprised of 12 partners, more than 50 lawyers, eight technical advisers, and almost 80 people in our support staff, all of whom are ready to assist our clients 24/7. It is in our DNA to know our client’s goals, to be proactive and to give practical solutions. We are different to other law firms because our partners are always fully involved in all the matters related to our clients, and the clients really appreciate such involvement. We have clients in all the fields of the economy, for e.g., pharmaceuticals, entertainment, telecommunications, and mining and natural resources. We have been lucky enough to assist most of the key players in the market in such fields. Our life sciences practice is also strong.
Diego Muñoz
Founding Partner, Diego Muñoz
We are a law firm with an international profile; between 60 and 70% of our revenue comes from international clients. When we started 27 years ago, the country was undergoing an interesting process regarding the new constitution, economic opening, and opportunities that allowed equal conditions for all. Within that process, we identified several possibilities where we could participate without facing considerable competition. One of the sectors that we identified was incoming privatizations, and we were fortunate enough to get involved in the first one. This led us to an important number of privatizations in the energy, gas transportation, electricity, and telecommunications sectors. That marked the projection of the firm in three important lines: mergers and acquisitions, to the extent that privatizations are the most complex, sophisticated, and transversal form; they involve a complex structure process that had never existed until then in Colombia, with project financing and the structuring of guarantees; and regulatory compliance. The most important factor is that the client always feels well attended to, and we have to be able to respond swiftly and attentively. We must be able to not only serve reactively, but also proactively anticipate their needs.
Juan Pablo Triana
Lead Partner, Triana, Uribe & Michelsen
The firm serves as the point of entry to Colombia for investors, helping them organize employment contracts, registering their brands, renting an office, and so on. Our department, which is the corporate side, is the gateway to Colombia for foreigners. The firm works nonstop from dawn to dusk. We are our own prosecutor and auditor, and being close knit means we are aware of what works and what does not. Second, between us, there must be equity, justice, and proportionality. This stability has been maintained for the past 27 years. The third point is that our goal is to achieve, not to grow. We can only provide what we can control. Our motto is personalization of the service. The ability to respond immediately. Customization, around quality, is maintained, as we want it to be. A client may well arrive around commercial or civil litigation, and at some point, the work touches our corporate department and intellectual property, which is extremely robust and market leading. Or we might be working on a corporate issue, and it might later involve intellectual property. We always accompany our clients every step of the way, and our clients notice that closeness and 24/7 commitment.
José Abusaid
Founder & Partner, Abusaid Gomez
Our team is heavily oriented toward and trained in FDI regulations. We are used to working in English even more than Spanish and being trained in highly advanced business English is not common in Colombia. More than anything, we deliver on time and we are on time for meetings. Both things might sound insignificant, though they ultimately make a difference. Our experience of 15 years has been in FDI, where we follow developments in free trade agreements, double taxation agreements, and everything to do with currency regulations, which can be rather delicate and complex at times. Our style has always been to learn about the project and to understand what the company is about and their local objectives. We design a project that, from a legal standpoint, helps them achieve their goals. We review those projects every six months to see where things are going and make the necessary adjustments. More than just reacting to a specific need, we like to develop a legal project for the company to make sure they achieve their goals, and that makes the difference. We have clients of 15 years that joined us on their first day in Colombia and are doing great business today.
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