Pérez-Llorca deploys its Iberia-Latam team in Mexico: Lafita and Sánchez-Quiñones relocate with six lawyers

Pérez-Llorca has taken a new step in its Mexican bet. On 6 October 2026, the firm announced the creation of an Iberia-Latam team based in Mexico, a deployment that includes the relocation of two partners from Madrid - Alfredo Lafita, of Corporate/M&A, as Senior Vice President Iberia-Latam, and Gonzalo Sánchez-Quiñones - together with six Spanish lawyers specialised in insurance, corporate/M&A, real estate, international litigation and arbitration. With this move, the firm declares more than 200 professionals between Mexico City and Monterrey.

The news is recent, but it should be placed precisely in the firm's timeline, because there is some confusion in circulation: the integration between Pérez-Llorca and the Mexican firm González Calvillo is not from now. It was announced on 15 April 2024, was approved by the partners of both firms, obtained the necessary regulatory authorisations and was completed on 15 July 2024. A note dated 22 October 2026 reiterates that closing announcement, but it is not a new transaction: it is the same 2024 milestone. The current expansion is the October Iberia-Latam team, a later and distinct development.

From integration to transatlantic deployment

The 2024 integration incorporated the partners of González Calvillo into the Pérez-Llorca partnership in what the firm described as a full legal and financial integration. The Mexican platform started with some 100 lawyers and 160 professionals between Mexico City and Monterrey, after two decades of prior collaboration between the two houses. The strategic plan was to build a Mexican practice for major transactions, financings, transnational litigation and regulatory mandates, advising clients on both sides of the Atlantic: multinationals, funds and firms.

The closing announcement identified four senior figures. Pedro Pérez-Llorca, the firm's senior partner, described Mexico as a market with a sophisticated legal sector to which the firm wanted to contribute. Enrique González Calvillo, founding partner of the Mexican firm, maintained that the union would create the largest Hispanic-American firm and would strengthen links with leading practices in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Partner Rodrigo Rojas called it a milestone for the Mexican legal market, and Iván Delgado, international executive partner of Pérez-Llorca, highlighted that the transaction would strengthen the firm's cross-border transactions and disputes practice.

The 2024 transaction was presented as the first cross-border alliance of its kind between a Spanish and a Mexican firm, after two decades of professional relationship between the two houses. That prior track record partly explains the speed of the integration: the teams already knew each other's working methods and common clients.

In the integration announcement, the firm also committed to devoting investment and resources to strengthening the Mexican teams and expanding the practice, a commitment that the subsequent deployment has been materialising with partner hires and now with the relocation of Spanish lawyers.

Growth, in figures

The subsequent growth endorses the bet. In May 2025, after the first year of integration, the firm reported that its team in Mexico was already close to 190 professionals, with ten partners recruited or promoted since the merger. The October 2026 announcement raises the figure to more than 200 people between the two cities, with the Iberia-Latam team as the organisational piece that articulates the transatlantic work from Mexico itself.

The profile of those relocated reveals the mandate: insurance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, international litigation and arbitration are the areas where demand for Spain-Latin America advice is concentrated, from Spanish investments in the region to cross-border proceedings. The position of Senior Vice President Iberia-Latam that Lafita assumes is a role created to manage that bidirectional flow of work.

Full integration versus other expansion models

The trait that differentiates Pérez-Llorca's Mexican operation from other international expansion models is the complete legal and financial integration: the partners of González Calvillo became part of Pérez-Llorca's single partnership, so incentives, profit and loss accounts and brand were aligned from day one. It is the opposite model to alliances or best friends networks, where each firm retains its economic independence and collaboration is limited to the referral of mandates. The specialised coverage identified no external advisers to the transaction in the closing announcement, a relevant fact in a market where these combinations are usually accompanied by investment banks and international legal advisers.

The October deployment adds an organisational layer distinct from the partnership integration: a transatlantic team physically settled in Mexico but conceived for Spain-Latin America work, with relocated Spanish partners. It is the formula that allows offering European clients an interlocutor in Mexican time zone and jurisdiction with the working culture of the parent house, and Latin American clients, direct access to the Spanish practice.

What to watch from now on

The next indicator to follow will be the translation into mandates of the new team: whether the physical presence of Spanish partners in Mexico City accelerates the arrival of transatlantic transactions - mergers and acquisitions, financings, arbitrations - that until now were managed from Madrid with local support. It will also be worth watching whether the Iberia-Latam structure extends to other locations in the region or whether the model remains concentrated on the Mexico-Spain axis.

A move within a sector trend

Pérez-Llorca's deployment is part of the race of the major Spanish firms for Latin America, a market where local presence with full integration - as against alliances or best friends - has become the firm's hallmark. The Mexican case is also especially competitive: the integration with González Calvillo placed Pérez-Llorca among the relevant players in the market in barely two years, and the new transatlantic team seeks to turn that scale into mandates.

For the internal reading of the sector, the move confirms that the firm keeps investing in its international platform after a year of growth that we already reported when analysing the 20% growth of its international business in 2026 and the 100 million refinancing with Alantra for Latin America. In law firm market terms, you can also consult the coverage of the CGAE and ICAM warning over the entry of funds into law firms.

Precision note: the information comes from the specialised coverage of Bars Across and from the firm's public announcements; the partner statements cited correspond to the 2024 integration announcement and the Iberia-Latam team was announced on 6 October 2026.

Sources

• Bars Across: "Pérez-Llorca's Mexico Team 200 as New Cross-Border Unit Takes Shape"