Avendaño Merino, which will now be known as Garrigues Chile, has a team of more than 20 lawyers, of which five will become partners of Garrigues; Oscar Ferrari, Luis Felipe Merino, José Miguel Rioseco, Luis Eduardo Correa and Rodrigo Fernández. The firm covers corporate law, with special emphasis on M&A, tax, real estate and energy. 

The transaction in Chile makes Garrigues the European firm with the largest number of own offices in Latin America, with a presence in Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Chile. The firm now has more than 100 Latin American lawyers working in its various offices.

Garrigues has been developing its own network since it pulled the plug on its Latin American alliance in 2013, and last year merged with local player DLP in Colombia. In 2014, Rubio Leguía Normand partners Óscar Arrús, Sergio Amiel, Thomas Thorndike and José Francisco Meier joined Garrigues’ office in Lima.

Iberian rival Uría Menéndez announced its intention to develop its activities in Latin America in 2014 after it took on a 30 per cent stake in the merger of Chilean firm Philippi and Colombian firm Prietocarrizosa, making Philippi Prietocarrizosa & Uría. The firm plans to consolidate its merger under the Uría Menéndez umbrella by 2020, buying up the rest of the shares from the two other firms.