Marlen Estévez, striking out on her own
After almost nine years at RocaJunyent, the lawyer speaks exclusively to Iberian Lawyer about how she is building Marest Law and why she is taking a different approach from that of the major law firms
by ilaria iaquinta
This is not the first time Marlen Estévez has built a legal team from scratch. She did so at SJ Berwin (which was subsequently integrated into King & Wood Mallesons), where she established a department that, she recalls, became the firm’s secondlargest in terms of revenue. She did it again at RocaJunyent, which she joined in 2017 to rebuild the dispute resolution practice in Madrid. This time, however, the venture is her own. After almost nine years at RocaJunyent, where she also served on the board of directors, Estévez has decided to establish Marest Law, a new firm whose launch was announced by Iberian Lawyer on 19 October (read the news here). “In a way, I had been building businesses throughout my career within other structures, but always starting from scratch,” she tells Iberian Lawyer in her first interview about the new venture. She had already launched professional and social initiatives, including Women in a Legal World and Más Cultura del Acuerdo (featured in MAG n.º 141). The decision had been taking shape for some time, driven by her desire to practise law in her own way, but also by her reflections on the difficulties large organisations face in adapting to change.
Estévez uses a comparison to explain the difference: steering an ocean liner is not the same as steering a speedboat. In her view, although large firms have considerable resources and technical expertise, their size can make it harder to introduce new tools and change working processes. “When you are a very large organisation, it is very difficult to make changes because you face a lot of resistance and internal policies,” she says. Marest intends to take advantage of that greater ability to respond quickly. Independence is another factor. According to the firm, its structure will allow it to take on matters against major corporations and financial institutions with fewer restrictions arising from potential conflicts of interest.
THE MODEL
The firm launched with five practice areas: Dispute Resolution, M&A and Corporate Law, Restructuring and Insolvency, Employment and Tax. Estévez has yet to decide whether it will eventually become a full-service firm. She explains that her clients’ needs have led her to expand the scope of her advice beyond dispute resolution. But the availability of the right professionals has also been a factor: “We would not have created those practice areas if we had not found the right people along the way to lead them,” she says.
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