Panama

Firm overview

With more than 79 years of experience, we have lawyers with long experience in several practice areas and young lawyers, thus becoming a firm that is constantly renewed and adapts to the today's world needs, ensuring to offer you the best legal talent and service. The firm’s heritage, passion for law and commitment to quality, allows Arias to grow along with the region and overcome new challenges in each country in which Arias operates: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama

Our elite team of practitioners advice global corporations in a variety of industries such as: aviation, hospitality, energy, banking, pharmaceutical, technology, food and beverages, services, TMT, retail, NGO, Investment Funds, consumer goods, health care among others. The finance and corporate department are the largest in our firm and this responds to our experience and reputation in the market and the demands of our clients, multinational and national companies. Also, the department is integrated by a team of lawyers with different areas of expertise giving a 360 comprehensive legal advice.

Our main areas of practice are:

• M&A
• Banking
• Finance
• Tax
• Regulatory
• Project Development
• Labor
• Anti-Trust
• Corporate & Commercial
• Competition
• Compliance
• Dispute Resolution
• Intellectual Property

Firm overview

EY Law is an international law firm, affiliated to the EY global firm with offices in 150 countries around the world and more than 300.000 professionals. In the Central America region, the firm has more than 1.500 employees, with more than 100 lawyers and offices in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. 

The firm is acknowledged for its pre-eminent trajectory, forward thinking and innovation, based on the highest ethical and professional standard and represents important multinational and regional clients, including numerous Fortune 500 companies,which grant the firm the gold standard for high-end legal advice. In the last 12 months, EY Law has reinforced its presence in the Panama legal market by recruiting talent to strengthen its offer in corporate law, labor and immigration, compliance and corporate governance, data protection, real estate and hospitality and financial services. Together with the multidisciplinary capabilities of the other service lines, EY Law presents a unique offer that puts the legal services offering at an unparallel level for the benefit of our clients. 

Firm overview

Arias, Fábrega & Fábrega has been at the forefront of the legal profession in Panama, advising international financial institutions, multinationals and some of the largest domestic companies for over 100 years.
ARIFA is a top full-service law firm, particularly recognized for its exceptional strength in complex structured cross-border transactions.
The firm has developed its own network of affiliated offices in London, Hong Kong, The British Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Belize.

Firm overview

Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) was established in 1985 and is one of Panama’s leading law firms.Alcogal is a full-service law firm with a dedicated team of attorneys focused on providing timely and efficient advice across all industries.Alcogal is particularly strong in the banking, finance, corporate M&A, and dispute resolution areas as well as in the representation of large corporations doing business in Panama. In its local practice, the banking department is one of the firm’s main areas of strength. It provides services to most of the large banks established in the country and also represents several foreign banks in its credit facilities to local or foreign entities. The firm also provides legal advice to a large number of companies from various industries, ranging from the largest telecommunication company in the country to companies engaged in port activities, software development, transportation (airlines, railroad and shipping), electric distribution, construction, manufacturing, petroleum distribution, pharmaceutical distribution, retail sales, among others.

Alcogal is also very experienced in dealing with international clients. It has handled many complex and cross-border financial transactions as well as large scale M&A transactions and public tenders.

The offshore practice is supported by offices in the British Virgin Islands, Belize, the Bahamas, Uruguay, and also by a strong network of correspondents throughout Europe, Asia, the US, and Latin America.

The firm’s success has been evidenced by its distinction as:

Panama Law Firm of the Year 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018, Chambers and Partners.

Central American Law Firm of the Year 2007 (this was the only year in which Panama was included as part of Central America for the purposes of this award), Chambers and Partners

Panama Law Firm of the Year 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021. Most Innovative Law Firm for Capital Markets, 2019, International Financial Law Review (IFLR)