|
While Spain’s law firms are still expanding internationally they reiterate in this year’s 17-page Global Special – starting on page 39 – that their strategic focus is to assist Iberia’s businesses as they satisfy their appetite for global expansion. There is no logic in competing head-to-head with the Anglo-American law firms, they say, although this may be a potential outcome of their current strategies in both Asia and Latin America.
Las firmas ibéricas revelan en el informe anual de Iberian Lawyer – Global Report – su estrategia internacional que es primordialmente apoyar a sus clientes en su expansión por el mundo.
Sin embargo, consideran que no es necesario enfrentarse cara a cara con las firmas Anglo-Americanas, aunque potencialmente pueda ser así en zonas como Asia y Latinoamérica. La actual expansión de China en Latinaoamérica refleja lo ya sucedido en Africa – no sólo por su interés en la compra de recursos naturales, sino además en la creación de infrastructura para exportarlas.
Esto podría ser positivo para las firmas de élite en Latinoamérica, aunque los mayores despachos ibéricos – con experiencia, contactos y especialistas en temas de infraestructura – también pueden aportar un valor añadido.
Tanto es así, que las empresas internacionales están percibiendo a la región ibérica como un punto neurálgico entre Asia y Latinoamérica. No debería sorprendernos, por consiguiente, que los despachos se preparen para responder a tal reto.
As we heard at Iberian Lawyer’s 2006 IBA debate last year in Chicago, while successive generations of US investors have come and gone from Latin America, some significant Spanish and Portuguese businesses have remained. While US and UK lawyers fly in and out of the region as required, Iberian lawyers have been making themselves quite at home.
But while the Chicago debate focused on the investment risks associated with the region, the discussion this year – to be held at the IBA Singapore conference – is all about the new Latin American “opportunity”.
China’s current expansion into Latin America mirrors their march into Africa – where they were ably assisted by Portuguese lawyers in Angola and Mozambique. As we learn in this issue (on page 49) not only are the Chinese buying natural resources, they are also creating the infrastructure to transport and export them.
This is good news of course for Latin America’s leading lawyers, although a handful of Iberia’s major firms believe that their local expertise, regional networks and global infrastructure experience can also add value. As we will hear in Singapore, some global businesses are already viewing Iberia as an important juncture on the Asian / Latin America axis. We should not be surprised, therefore, if their external lawyers started to think along the same lines.
So, as Iberia’s lawyers travel to Asia to develop relations they will be passing some high profile US and UK law firms heading in the opposite direction – seeking to leverage their huge Asian firepower into Latin America.
If this is more than just theory, we could be expecting news of a major Iberian / Anglo-American law firm cooperation, perhaps in the time for the 2008 IBA conference which takes place in Buenos Aries. Alternatively, a US-UK or Miami-based merger – would be an interesting possibility.
Moray McLaren
Managing Editor
|
