Ignored by much of the global elite until a few years ago, Spain is quickly becoming one of the hottest legal markets in continental Europe, with Latham & Watkins more than doubling its headcount in less than a year while UK challenger firm Fieldfisher delivers on its much anticipated launch.
Fieldfisher managing partner Michael Chissick announced on 25 September that the firm had completed a three-year-long search to combine with 60-lawyer firm JAUSAS.
‘Spain was the missing link,’ Chissick told Legal Business. ‘It’s the fourth-largest economy in Europe. It’s exciting now to have offices in both Barcelona and Madrid.’
The firm’s partner in the combination, which will operate as a verein member under the name Fieldfisher JAUSAS, was formed more than 50 years ago by Agustí Jausàs, whose grandson Héctor is now one of its life sciences partners.
Led by managing partner Agustín Bou, it turned over €8.4m during the last financial year, a fraction of Spanish giants Garrigues, Uría Menéndez and Cuatrecasas, with revenues of well over €200m. However, Chissick described JAUSAS as the ‘pre-eminent life sciences firm in the country’, while adding the aim is for it to grow further in the tech arena. Other key practice areas include corporate, competition, dispute resolution, employment and intellectual property, as well as a desk handling the growing flow of Chinese capital into the country.
While it took Fieldfisher three years to find the right Spanish partner, it has taken Latham less than 12 months to grow its Madrid base from 18 to around 50.
Since former DLA Piper senior partner Juan Picón’s surprise move to become Latham’s Madrid managing partner in November 2017, Latham made several other hires from international firms, including a nine-strong team led by real estate partner Rafael Molina from Linklaters in October.
Several others followed Picón from DLA’s local branch, which now counts 81 lawyers. Corporate partners Ignacio Gómez-Sancha and José Antonio Sánchez-Dafos moved to Latham in 2017 and former head of competition José Maria Jiménez Laiglesia in September this year.
Speaking to Legal Business, Picón said Latham chose Jiménez Laiglesia from five candidates that showed interest when the firm announced it was looking for an antitrust partner to support its core local M&A and finance teams. ‘We had proposals from very good candidates, but the process ended up with José Maria, one of the top antitrust partners in the country.’
Now that M&A, real estate and competition are covered, Picón said Latham was still looking to expand its finance capabilities – a further indication that the traditionally quiet Spanish lateral market is likely to be in the news again soon.