Pérez-Llorca enters the Asian market via Singapore

Pérez-Llorca will open a new office in Singapore in the first quarter of 2023, as part of its growth and international projection strategy.

With this opening, Pérez-Llorca becomes the first Spanish law firm to have a presence in Singapore, a city that will be the hub from which the law firm will develop its strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes such important economies as China, Japan, Australia, Singapore itself, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Vietnam. Pérez-Llorca has been actively working in Asia for several years through its Asian Desk.

With the opening of this office in Singapore, Pérez-Llorca will complete its geographical presence in the world’s three main financial decision-making centres: New York, London and Singapore. The law firm has been directing its strategy in the Americas from New York, with a special focus on the East Coast and Latin America. From the London office, located in the Mayfair district close to the main international financial sponsors and funds, the law firm promotes its corporate and debt practices, which are heavily reliant on work for these types of operators. The Singapore office will complete the plan to be located in the financial capitals of the three major economic development regions. Pérez-Llorca has also had its own office in Brussels for a few months now, from where it manages its European law practice and develops its public, regulatory and competition law areas, which are of central importance to the law firm.

“This new office has a clear strategic fit for us. The Asian economy is, as we speak, outperforming both the American and European economies. We have to be present there, to help our clients and also for ourselves, to develop our own practice and to keep learning. And Singapore is, without a doubt, the place to be in Asia-Pacific,” says Pedro Pérez-Llorca, managing partner of Pérez-Llorca.

The new office will be headed by Pablo Hontoria, whose appointment as partner will be proposed at the next General Meeting of Partners of Pérez-Llorca. Hontoria will relocate to Singapore with a small team of lawyers from the law firm.

Pablo Hontoria, who started his career at Pérez-Llorca in 2011, is considered by the law firm as a great representative of its career and talent development plan. After a few years in the Madrid office, he participated alongside Iván Delgado in the opening of the New York office, where he worked until 2017. In 2018, supported by the Firm, Hontoria studied a Master of Laws (LL.M.) at Columbia University and worked for two years as an international associate in the New York office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, as part of the talent exchange programme that Pérez-Llorca maintains with the main law firms in New York. Back in Madrid, he rejoined one of the law firm’s corporate teams, from where his career, focused on advising large companies and funds on cross-border transactions, has continued to have an important international component.

Member of the New York State Bar Association (admitted since 2020) and Spanish Foreign Legal Consultant by the Supreme Court of New York (admitted since 2016), Hontoria has extensive experience in advising national and international clients on mergers and acquisitions, asset and business unit transfers, as well as corporate and corporate governance matters. He advises both private equity funds and industrial groups on cross-border transactions in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, software and food.

“I am very excited that Pablo Hontoria is opening this office. He is a great representative of the career plan that we want to offer to anyone with ambition, with international training, moves between offices, stays in other firms and, in general, opportunities. This is a good firm if you are up and coming,” said Pedro Pérez-Llorca.

Ilaria

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