Interact Law’s Spanish member ECIJA recently merged with Mexican firm Chacón & Rodríguez, marking the entry into Mexico, the 11th Latin American country in which it has a presence. How does Ricardo Chacón see this step? ‘It’s a very good move for our firm, from a business point of view, in this global world, we thought it would be a great step forward. In ECIJA we are not a network of offices, but one single firm, it’s an advantage for clients.’

Global world

Ricardo Chacón is one of the founding partners of his firm, which will use the name ECIJA in Mexico now. Didn’t he regret the change of their name? Sure, you have your heart with your name, as a founding partner after 15 years. But from a business point of view, in this global world, we think our new name is an advantage. ECIJA is a very innovative, tech, digitally oriented law firm. It’s great to join this global institution.’

Integrating new associates

According to Ricardo Chacón, the firm rapidly evolves since the merger with ECIJA: ‘We are moving to a bigger space, where we can make our growth plans come true, with new colleagues. We are integrating senior associates, to develop some extra practice lawyers like fintech, digital law, e-commerce, new technologies. With ECIJA we can say we have that expertise. We see a big window of opportunities, a lot of clients ask for this.’ Chacón foresees the firm will double its size in ultimately two years. ‘Now we are part of ECIJA, which has offices everywhere, we are able to offer more services to our clients.’

Important market for ECIJA

‘For us its big news to enter a market as important as Mexico, and we have had the intention to enter the country for some time, but until now we had not encountered the appropriate partner with whom to do so,’ tells Alejandro Touriño, managing partner at ECIJA in Madrid. ‘ECIJA is a firm that has seen much growth over the past few years, and especially in Latin America, but Mexico had not been part of our portfolio, and many clients of ours were requesting representation in Mexico, and it was necessary for us to offer our services in Mexico,’ Touriño says. ‘We have many important clients with a presence in Mexico and we wanted to accompany them there and become one of the main players in the Mexican legal sector.’