Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, today announced it would become the first global law firm with offices in Central America if a proposed combination with Costa Rica-based Muñoz Global is approved by partners of both firms later this year.
Muñoz Global is a newly established law firm, comprised of the former Costa Rican offices of the Arias & Muñoz law firm and new offices in Panama and Nicaragua. Muñoz Global founders José Antonio Muñoz and Pedro Muñoz also founded Muñoz & Muñoz, which combined with El Salvador’s FA Arias in 1998 to form Arias & Muñoz, the first Pan-Central American law firm. José Antonio Muñoz, Pedro Muñoz and Armando Arias, founder of FA Arias, today announced the Muñoz brothers’ separation from the Arias firm on amicable terms.
The Costa Rica office will be managed by Founding Partner, José Antonio Muñoz. The Panama office will be managed by Gisela Alvarez de Porras, a leader in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and international finance, including vast experience advising in multijurisdictional transactions. The leadership of the Nicaragua office will be announced shortly, and Founding Partner, Pedro Muñoz, who opened the firm’s Nicaragua office 20 years ago, will oversee its launch.
The proposed combination follows the launch of Dentons López Velarde in Mexico and Dentons Cardenas & Cardenas in Colombia earlier this year. It marks the next step in Dentons’ strategy to grow its presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“As the first global law firm with offices in Central America, we will be uniquely positioned to serve our clients who have growing needs in this region,” said Joe Andrew, Global Chairman of Dentons. “Our goal is to connect those clients to top-tier talent by combining with firms whose lawyers are highly regarded and deeply rooted in the local economy and legal culture. The lawyers of Muñoz Global offer all that and more.”
“Since our launch in Mexico and Colombia earlier this year, cross-border work into and out of the region has grown rapidly, demonstrating that clients see a great advantage to being served by a global firm that can offer the best locally informed legal counsel and business advice anywhere they operate,” said Elliott Portnoy, Global Chief Executive Officer of Dentons. “Given the interconnectedness of the economies of Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, we see real opportunities to serve clients further through more intra-region work as well.”
“For more than 21 years our lawyers have focused on international standard legal and business solutions for the Central America market. With the announced intent to combine with Dentons, we will now help our clients around the world while continuing to provide our services and counsel in Central America and Panama,” said José Antonio Muñoz, Founding Partner of Muñoz Global. “In 1995, Pedro Muñoz and I began our long-term project to make legal services in our region international when we started operations in Nicaragua. After an incredible 18-year run in Central America we now go global with help and great support from Dentons.”
The combination of Dentons and Muñoz Global would allow both firms to enhance their capabilities in key business sectors and practices including Banking and finance: Muñoz Global and Dentons have significant banking and finance practices, with both firms jointly serving some of the world’s largest banks. In addition, each firm serves leading local and regional financial institutions in their respective regions.
- Corporate: Reflecting the strong ties to local economic drivers in the communities they serve, both firms have built substantial corporate practices, providing counsel on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and foreign direct investment. Muñoz Global boasts one of Central America’s elite transactional practices. Muñoz Global lawyers were ranked Band 1 by the legal guide Chambers in Corporate/M&A and focus on banking and finance, real estate, life sciences and manufacturing.
- Dispute resolution: The proposed combination would, for the first time, unite a global firm with a significant presence in the world’s leading arbitration centers, such as London and Singapore, with the Central American leader in dispute resolution. Chambers recently awarded Muñoz Global lawyers a Band 1 ranking in Dispute Resolution.
- Life sciences: Dentons and Muñoz Global share numerous clients in the pharmaceutical, medical equipment and health services sectors. The combination would bring the advantages of one-firm service to these clients across all the locations served by the new firm.
- Real estate: Clients of both firms will benefit from the synergies of combining one of Central America’s most widely recognized real estate practices. Muñoz Global lawyers have a Band 1 ranking from Chambers. Clients of Muñoz Global will now gain the experience and skill of the largest real estate practice group in the world at Dentons.
- Tourism and hospitality: If approved, the combination will bring together Dentons’ world-class Hotels and Leisure practice with one of Central America’s leading tourism and hospitality groups to serve one of the region’s most important business sectors.
Transportation and logistics: Both firms offer public and private sector clients deep experience in all aspects of transportation, transportation finance and logistics. Muñoz Global’s longtime involvement in government-sponsored transportation and infrastructure projects will bring an added dimension to the work that Dentons performs on behalf of leading engineering, logistics and transportation clients around the world. Muñoz Global’s Projects lawyers were recognised as Band 1 by Chambers.
Both firms will seek approval for the proposed combination from their partners before the end of 2016.
Photo (L-R): Joseph Andrew; Elliott Portnoy
