Still presenting opportunities to clients
The current economic situation means that law firms must stay
close to their clients in order to fully understand the issues
impacting on them, but also to be alive to potential new
opportunities for them, says Isabel Dutilh, partner at Dutilh
Abogados in Madrid.
en España implica que
los despachos deben
mantenerse cerca de
sus clientes para
comprender con toda
claridad los aspectos
que puedan afectarles
de una forma más
directa, señala Isabel
Dutilh, socia de Dutilh
abogados en Madrid.
Las necesidades
jurídicas de los clientes
pueden variar pero
Madrid y España siguen
ofreciendo interesantes
oportunidades de
inversión.
'We are not seeing a slowdown in
the volume of matters clients
present, in fact quite the reverse.
We are though seeing greater emphasis on
corporate, restructuring and employment issues
– areas in which there is a need for us to fully
understand the context in which events are
happening.'
Such a change of emphasis is among the
drivers behind the firm's recent integration of
labour specialist boutique Bufete Caldevilla, she
says. 'Issues such as those that surround
corporate restructurings, for example, labour
relations and collective bargaining, are areas in
which it greatly helps to be able to bounce ideas
around between teams in order to present
clients with fully rounded solutions.'
But even in the current economic
environment Dutilh sees continuing deal
activity and of emerging new areas of
operation. 'There clearly remain sectors that
are less affected by the wider economic
situation and some that may even expand
despite it,' she says.
Among the areas of consistent activity, she
notes continuing interest among private
equity (PE) clients, albeit for smaller deals,
and a growing focus on technology
companies, for example, within the telecoms
sectors and relating to the growing use and
application of GPS.
'Structures may now require PEs to selffund
a much larger proportion of the
acquisition, and deals may be taking longer,
but many see the prevailing market as one in
which attractive acquisitions can still be made.'
Also evident, she says, are the efforts being
made by manufacturers and distributors to
capitalise on Spain's changing demographic.
'We are seeing an upturn in interest
among foreign companies to target the
'nostalgic' needs of our new immigrant
populations,' she says. 'In recent months we
have seen companies from across Eastern
Europe, Latin America and China target
Spain, for them this is clearly a growth
market.'
