Juan Gonzalo Ospina leaves legal practice for Colombia diplomatic role

Juan Gonzalo Ospina, founder and managing partner of Ospina Abogados, is stepping away from legal practice to take up a diplomatic role representing Colombia in Belgium, Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO. The appointment takes Ospina from Madrid’s criminal law market to Brussels, where he will represent Colombia before some of the country’s key European and international counterparts. His designation for the Brussels post had first emerged in July.

His departure also triggers a change at the top of the firm he founded in 2016. Beatriz Uriarte, currently a partner at Ospina Abogados, will become managing partner, taking responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the criminal law boutique. Ospina will retain an equity interest in the firm but will no longer practise law while carrying out his diplomatic duties. Uriarte has worked alongside Ospina for several years and has developed her practice principally in criminal litigation, including matters involving sexual offences and gender-based violence. The two have also worked together on some of the firm’s most high-profile criminal cases.

Ospina, who studied Law and Political Science at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE), built his career in Spain before founding Ospina Abogados, which specialises in criminal and white-collar crime matters.Among the cases that brought him wider international visibility was the representation in Spain of the family of Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta in the proceedings against Daniel Sancho in Thailand. The firm’s legal team on the matter also included Uriarte. Ospina has also been active in Madrid’s legal institutions, including a previous role on the governing board of the Madrid Bar Association and a bid for the ICAM presidency in 2022.

His move to Brussels therefore marks both a change of career for the lawyer and the beginning of a new leadership phase for Ospina Abogados, with Uriarte taking over the management of the firm.