Cuatrecasas finalizes the integration of GBP Legal, a Bilbao-headquartered boutique law firm focusing on advisory services in corporate, M&A, business restructuring, finance and securities markets law. It currently advises some of the leading Basque corporations—including various listed and non-listed companies, and financial and public institutions—on corporate legal issues.

This integration would go hand in hand with the hiring of well-known Bilbao corporate lawyer José Ramón Berecibar as a new partner of the firm to lead the Corporate and Commercial Practice in the Basque Country. Specializing in commercial, corporate and securities markets law, Berecibar is one of the most active lawyers in the Basque Country. The founding partner of GBP Legal law firm, prior to that and over 11 years he developed his career in prestigious law firms in Spain and the United Kingdom. Together with partner Berecibar, Cuatrecasas will be hiring four lawyers that practiced in GBP Legal.

In anticipation of the potential new hires, the firm has reorganized its internal structure. Cuatrecasas has created a single-office principle in the Basque Country to further improve its client service. As of January 1, the firm’s current offices in Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria will be merged to operate as a single office. The reorganization—which will make it in the firm’s third largest office in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona—will enable the team structure of the three offices to be unified around practice areas while keeping the three current headquarters open in the three historic regions. The single office will have 60 lawyers in 2021.

The new structure goes beyond a purely local team configuration. In recent years and due to their geographical proximity, the three offices shared clients and designed shared teams. This reorganization satisfies a recurring request of many clients operating in the the Basque Country. The single-office principle will improve client service efficiency and also create new opportunities to increase the firm’s current rate of business growth and leadership in the three regions.

The new managing partner of the Basque Country single office will be the current managing partner of the San Sebastián office and coordinator of all the Cuatrecasas regional offices, Joanes Labayen. The three offices—Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria—will each maintain a manager to handle administrative matters.

The Cuatrecasas plan for the next three years in the Basque Country is to increase the current rate of business growth to become by far the leading law firm in business law in the three regions and neighboring communities, with a legal practice developed by a highly qualified team with an in-depth knowledge of the business world, its institutions and regional tax.

The Basque Country has always been a key part of the firm’s development, and the international expansion of Cuatrecasas was possible largely thanks to the activity generated by the large Basque corporations in their bid to expand business beyond the Spanish market. The Cuatrecasas lawyers defend the interests of the major companies headquartered in the Basque Country, helping them to develop their businesses through legal instruments that contribute to their expansion, improved management and competitive market positioning.