FERRERE announced today the opening of its third office in Bolivia, in the city of Cochabamba. Cochabamba is Bolivia’s third-largest city and a hub for major food processing, transportation, manufacturing and energy multinationals. It is also relevant as headquarters for national banks. FERRERE, which has a significant local and regional presence in all of these industries, has assigned four attorneys to this office from day one and plans to grow it quickly.
Partner Alejandro Pemintel is heading up the team, which will focus on providing services in the corporate, tax, litigation, labor and government contracts areas (sharing his time with his responsibilities as head of the La Paz office). He will be accompanied in leading the office by senior associate Dánica Yaksic, who joined the firm on July 1, 2016, as well as two additional associates. FERRERE already represents a dozen large companies in Cochabamba, and its partners travel to the city weekly. The Cochabamba office’s opening will allow FERRERE to better serve its clients, as well as strengthen the firm’s presence in key industries.
With a ten-year presence in Bolivia, FERRERE is the country’s second largest and fastest-growing firm. It recently moved to new offices in La Paz, quadrupling the size of its previous premises in that city, and announced that it will soon be moving to new offices in Santa Cruz, to a building whose construction is nearly complete and will be an emblematic landmark for the city.
The opening of the Cochabamba office is part of the firm’s process of international expansion, whose most recent milestones include the opening of an office in Quito, Ecuador, in April 2015, followed by inauguration of a second office in Manta, Ecuador at the start of 2016, and the forthcoming opening of an office in Guayaquil. The firm has a total of ten offices in the four countries in which it operates, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Partner Alejandro Pemintel noted: “We have had our sights set on Cochabamba for some time, especially given the unprecedented growth of Bolivia and of many of the Cochabamba-based industries in recent years. Several of our principal clients are based in Cochabamba, have significant ties to that city, or have a firm intention to establish operations there. The opening of this office is a natural step to constantly meet their needs.”
Gerardo Villagómez, managing partner of FERRERE’s Bolivia offices, stated: “The firm has had exceptional growth in Bolivia and has made the most of exceptional years for the local economy. Today we are investing in expansion and strengthening all our offices in Bolivia, attracting talent, boosting our physical and technological infrastructure, and promoting on all fronts the formula that has made FERRERE a success in all of its jurisdictions.”
Andrés Cerisola, global managing partner of FERRERE, affirmed: “The opening of the Cochabamba office is another step in the process that began in 2012 when we resolved that by 2017 we would be the leading firm in all of the jurisdictions in which we operate. The process of hard work, attraction of talent and investment that followed as a result of that decision is reflected in this new step, which reaffirms our conviction that our strategy of innovation, differentiation and intelligent investment will continue to yield the extraordinary fruits we have seen over the course of these years.”
About FERRERE:
FERRERE is the only multi-jurisdictional South American law firm. It has 200+ attorneys in Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, and stands out for its US-style structure, methodologies and policies. The firm has developed international standards and homogeneous service across all its offices, implemented by its integrated regional practice groups and procedures, and a firm-wide training program. FERRERE is a rarity in the jurisdictions in which it operates. It is a fully merit-based organization. It has an early mandatory retirement policy and places great emphasis on promoting diversity, with women making up 30% of the partnership.