Portuguese firm CCA splits from Ontier

Lisbon law firm CCA has confirmed it has de-merged from Spanish law firm Ontier.

CCA had been a member of the Ontier network since 2013 and was known as CCA Ontier.

However, CCA confirmed it had been rebranded as CCA Law and this “marks a change of relationship with Ontier”.

CCA managing partner Domingos Cruz (pictured) said: “We cease to integrate the Ontier network, which allows us to clearly assume our current strategic positioning. We will naturally maintain a relevant workflow with ONTIER, but separately and independently.”

Though a member of the Ontier network, CCA was not fully intergrated into the Ontier partnership. Sources say there were no plans to integrate the two partnerships. As a result, it is understood that CCA preferred to pursue its strategy alone.

CCA does not publicly disclose its revenue figures, but, according to sources, the firm’s revenue doubled in the five years following the merger with Ontier. In 2016, CCA opened an office in Oporto. In 2017, the firm stated its aim was to become one of the top ten firms in Portugal measured by total billing and numbers of lawyers.

Ontier has not ruled out finding a new partner firm in Portugal.

A Ontier statement said the two firms still had an “excellent” relationship and that they would remain very close “but now as two totally independent firms with different projects”.

The statement added: “We will continue to work with shared clients in many cases. In the short term, CCA will continue to be our reference firm in Portugal for projects taking place in the country, but of course, following the internalisation strategy of our firm, having an office in Portugal is still a possibility we’ll be considering in the future.”