Firms forge Latino-Iberian one-stop shop

Leading Spanish firm Cuatrecasas and its Portuguese ally Goncalves Pereira Vinhas Castelo Branco e Associados have extended their exclusive working agreement to both a Buenos Aires and a Sao Paulo-based firm.

The two firms are leading 60-lawyer Brazilian banking and finance practice Machado Meyer Sendacz e Opice Advogados and 50-lawyer Argentinian business law practice Perez Alati Grondona Benites Arntsen & Martinez de Hoz.

Goncalves' managing partner Manuel Castelo Branco said the alliance would provide his firm and Cuatrecasas with the one-stop shop that their Portuguese and Spanish clients had been clamouring for.

Last week The Lawyer reported that the 310-lawyer Cuatrecasas and 34 lawyer-Goncalves are in talks to cement their own strategic alliance - by which they share fees and bid jointly for clients - by merging.

The two firms share a Brussels office and Goncalves is expanding into Africa with an office in Mozambique's capital Maputo, staffed by two Portuguese lawyers and four local lawyers. It will open at the end of May. The Portuguese firm also has plans to open an associated office in Angola.