Top law firms grew by 18 per cent in 2019 in Andalusia
Main law firms´ turnover in Andalusia exceeded €70 million, €10 million more than in 2018
The five law firms that grew the most in the last registered financial year were Roca Junyent-Gaona y Rozados Abogados, ONTIER, Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, Montero|Aramburu Abogados and KPMG Abogados
The table draws a “near-tie” between the first two firms, both approaching €18 million turnover, Martínez-Echevarría Abogados and Montero|Aramburu Abogados, which continue to lead the top ten firms by revenue in Andalusia. A second decimal breaks the tie confirming Martínez-Echevarría in the first place and, even though the revenue figures are practically the same, Montero|Aramburu´s percentage growth was 9 per cent higher than that of M-E during the last financial year.
For its part, the firm led by Albert Rivera has ten offices in the Community of Andalusia; Málaga, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Almeria, Marbella, Fuengirola, Estepona, Manilva and Sotogrande. Martínez-Echevarría, founded in 1983, has signed eight new partners since Rivera’s entry in March and has seen its revenue grow by 4.8% in 2019 compared to the previous year, holding the 33rd position in the Iberian Lawyer national ranking published in June.
Its managing partner, Vicente Morató, confirms that the accounts are consolidated at the Andalusian level since “we are an Andalusian law firm”. The firm currently has 232 employees. Apart from the offices in Andalusia, Martínez-Echevarría also has an office in Madrid and several international offices (Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania). The firm handles Criminal, Labour, Tax and Fiscal and Commercial Law, Golden Visa Residency Permit in Spain & Portugal, claims for abusive banking terms, legal advice to companies and Family Law: divorces and separations, among other practices.
Montero|Aramburu Abogados, with an income that grew almost 14 per cent in the last financial year, went from €15.65 million in 2018 to €17.80 million in 2019. The law firm has three offices in Andalusia; Huelva, Cordoba and Seville. It was founded in Seville in 1971 as a firm specialised exclusively in Tax matters, a characteristic it maintained until 1992 when it began a process of diversification that has led it to become the fully multidisciplinary firm it is today. They specialise in Tax, Property, Commercial, Labour, Criminal, International Tax, Finance, Banking & Capital Markets, Civil, Sports and Leisure, Local Law, Litigation and Arbitration, Public Law, Business Restructuring & Bankruptcy, Town Planning & Environment and Regulated Sectors, among others. Montero|Aramburu Abogados has 139 employees in Andalusia. They also have offices in Madrid, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
In third position, although at a distance from the top two, is KPMG Abogados, with a turnover of nearly €6 million in 2019 (9 per cent more than in 2018). The Big Four is based in Málaga and Seville and has some 60 employees within its legal area alone. Last year it celebrated 30 years in Andalusia with the opening of its new Seville headquarters. Although the firm has been providing audit services in Andalusia since 1989, it was only a few years later that tax, legal and advisory services were incorporated, particularly in transactions, restructuring, forensic analysis, financial services and on the transformation and digitalisation of business models. The firm was ranked seventh in the Iberian Lawyer national ranking published last June with a turnover of €110.8 million in Spain.
Next is Zurbarán Abogados, with a turnover of €5.5 million. Their history in Andalusia dates back to January 2019, so they do not have any business data before 2018. It was created through the merger of law firms Zamora de Claver and Cuéllar Abogados together with lawyers José Manuel García-Quílez and Ricardo Astorga Morano. Although its main office is in Seville, with Miguel Cuéllar Portero as managing partner, the firm has other offices in Madrid and Zaragoza. The firm has 32 employees (25 lawyers including four partners and more than seven staff) and specialises in Tax, Administrative, Commercial, Criminal, Civil, Family and Inheritance, Real Estate, Environment, Litigation and Arbitration, Labour, Energy and Town Planning Law, among others.
Ranked fifth, Gómez-Villares & Atencia saw its turnover slightly reduced in 2019 compared to 2018, with a negative variation of 6.5 per cent, from €5.35 million to €5 million. GVA is a Malaga-based law firm with more than 65 years of history. Its multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive advice. They have offices in Málaga, Marbella and Torre del Mar. They have 64 employees, including the partners. They specialise in Constitutional Law, Real Estate, Banking, Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, Contract Law, Tort Law, European Union Law, Family and Inheritance, Labour, Litigation, Commercial and Corporate, Criminal, Public, Insurance, Information Technology, Tax and Town Planning Law, among others.
Next is Hispacolex, which increased its turnover by 5.4 per cent in 2019, exceeding €4 million. It began its activity in Granada in 1990 but has been part of the HISPAJURIS law firms network since 1999. The Granada-based law firm has, in addition to its main headquarters, offices in Málaga, Jaén and Huelva. It has a staff of 58 employees. They offer Insurance, Civil, Labour, Lawyer, Criminal, Commercial, Town Planning, International and Administrative Law.
In seventh position is Roca Junyent-Gaona y Rozados Abogados, a multidisciplinary firm based in Seville, Málaga and Madrid, which will be renamed Roca Junyent-Gaona, Palacios y Rozados Abogados, from October 1, following the integration of Palacios de Torres Asociados into Roca Junyent-Gaona y Rozados Abogados. The firm’s turnover in 2019 shows a 56% increase over the previous year, rising from €2.3 million in 2018 to €3.6 million invoiced in 2019. With a total of 50 employees, the firm covers Business and Corporate, Tax, Labour, Real Estate, Litigation and Public Law, among others.
Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo’s turnover in Andalusia was €2.66 million in 2019, representing a growth of 17% with respect to 2018 and ranking the firm in eighth place. The firm has four offices in Andalusia; Málaga, Marbella, Granada and Seville, and a total of 46 employees. They offer general legal advice on national and international matters. The firm, which has its main office in Madrid, had a global turnover of €17 million in 2019, holding the 36th position in the Iberian Lawyer national ranking.
Sanguino Abogados is in the ninth position with almost no rate of change in its turnover over the last two years, remaining at around €2.2 million. The firm has three offices in Andalusia; Seville, Málaga and Algeciras (Cadiz) and has a staff of 45 employees. They offer comprehensive legal advice; Commercial and Corporate, Labour, Tax, Civil, Family, Bankruptcy, Administrative, Town Planning, Criminal, Banking, Finance, Intellectual Property and New Technologies Law, among others.
In tenth place, we find Auren, whose turnover last year was around €2 million, representing an increase of 2% over the previous year. Auren, a professional services firm, has four divisions; Audit & Assurance, Lawyers & Tax Advisors, Consulting and Corporate. It has two offices in Andalusia: Málaga and Seville, although Legal services are concentrated in Málaga, where the firm has 29 employees within this division. In Iberian Lawyer’s latest national ranking the firm was ranked 24th with €26.6 million.
In 2019, EJASO ETL GLOBAL’s turnover increased by nearly 5%, from €1.87 million in 2018 to €1.96 million in 2019, ranked in eleventh position in the table. The firm has 21 employees between its offices in Seville and Cordoba; in the latter, the firm was integrated with Aguayo Abogados in 2017. They are specialised in Labour, Commercial, Competition, Corporate, Tax and Fiscal, Administrative, Civil, Town Planning, Criminal, ICT, Credit Recovery, Family, IT and Intellectual Property, Bankruptcy and Administrative Law, among others. The firm was ranked eighth in Iberian Lawyer´s last national ranking.
With the second-highest growth rate in the table in terms of turnover (36.5%), is ONTIER, holding the twelfth place, which went from €1 million in 2018 to more than €1.4 million last year. The firm only has the Seville office in Andalusia, where it has a staff of 44 professionals. The firm offers advice on Commercial Law, Mergers and Acquisitions, Litigation and Arbitration, Bankruptcy and Restructuring, Financial and Capital Markets, Regulatory, Public Law, Town Planning and Competition, Labour, Tax, Economic Criminal, Real Estate, Inheritance and Family, Maritime, New Technologies and Intellectual Property, Competition Law, Mediation and Environment, among others.
In the thirteenth position, Sánchez Solicitors, remaining above €1.3 million turnover. The firm has two offices in the province of Málaga (Nerja and Mijas). It has a team of 18 employees. They provide comprehensive advisory services; legal services in Real Estate, Family, Inheritance, Business, Litigation and Tax & Accounting Law, among others, as well as administrative services.
At a short distance, we find Carrera Abogados & Economistas, which, although its turnover fell by 20 per cent, remains above €1 million. In this sense, the firm states that: “The decrease in turnover in the financial year 2019 with respect to the previous one is due to the departure of two of the firm’s partners during that year.” The firm has offices in Málaga, Granada and Marbella, and has 19 employees. Carrera Abogados & Economistas was born in 2015 “with the vocation of providing global advice to businesses, facilitating innovative and personalised legal solutions that add value to the development of the business and tackling problems from a multidisciplinary perspective, thus providing a comprehensive solution to its problems.” They are specialised by areas, specifically in the departments of Commercial, Tax, Labour, Procedural, Bankruptcy and Arbitration.
The fifteenth position is for Villanueva Asesores. The Málaga-based firm, founded at the end of 1962 by Antonio Villanueva Gómez, recorded a growth in its turnover of over 4% in the last financial year. This multidisciplinary firm specialises in Labour and Social Security matters. They offer legal advice, representation and defence in courts and tribunals of all jurisdictions; Labour and Social Security management; Tax-Accounting and Commercial consultancy, auditing of accounts and administrative management. In 2019, according to the Mercantile Registry, the firm had 19 employees.
In last position, although still above €1 million, we find Andersen. Andersen’s office in Seville opened in May 2018 (the data in the table correspond to the May-December period) so, in its case, the annual change rate could not be calculated. The Seville office has 15 employees. The firm was launched in the Andalusian capital by José Manuel Pumar and Tomás Rivero as partners in the Tax area and Carlos Soto as head of the Litigation area. With a regional vocation, the firm provides advice in all areas of Law.
NOTE: This ranking has been made with the data provided by the firms to Iberian Lawyer and data from Spain´s Mercantile Registry. For this ranking, Andalusian law firms that exceeded €1 million in turnover in 2019 according to the Mercantile Registry were contacted, as well as national and international firms with offices in Andalusia that have agreed to break down their turnover data in this region for this ranking.
