BLP beefs up in Central America

Strengthening its local and regional practice areas of M&A, banking, finance and business law, BLP has incorporated two partners and a senior associate in El Salvador, and a new director of its energy and infrastructure and banking and finance practice areas, who will be based in San José Costa Rica.

In El Salvador, Mariana Nochez (pictured) and Zygmunt Brett join as partners, while Antonella Imbers joins as senior associate, and Pablo Umaña joins the firm in its San José office.

Brett and his close team left Arias Law, where he had been head of the banking and finance department and a senior partner at the firm for over two decades, and formed the Brett Law Practice group.

BLP began discussions with Brett and both firms have decided to join forces to swiftly combine their practices and grow their client base in El Salvador and the Central American region. Brett will become an equity partner in BLP and will be actively involved in the firms’ management affairs. He will be based in El Salvador, but will have a fully regional role advising companies across Central America.

Mariana and Antonella are both well-seasoned lawyers in the corporate arena. Mariana has more than 14 years of experience in the legal profession, advising local and international clients in the structuring, negotiation and execution of mergers, acquisitions and project financing.

Antonella has more than nine years’ experience assisting national and international companies on commercial and contractual affairs.

Brett and his team are joining the already successful BLP Salvadoran lineup. Partner Ricardo Cevallos will be splitting his time between El Salvador and Dallas, where he will be attracting new business into Central America, continuing with BLP’s efforts and strategy to attract global investments and being close to the firm’s clients, as BLP has also been doing in Mexico.

Regarding his team’s incorporation to BLP, Brett said, “Our team is very excited with the new organization. We want to retain and combine with the best legal talent in the market. We recognise that to attract and retain talent, organizations need to offer creative employment arrangements, genuine empathy and above all, flexibility.”

BLP has more than 170 lawyers providing service in 27 practice areas at 11 offices in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and a representation office in Spain.