Courtesy
of Garrigues
Jose Maria
Alonso and Minguel Gordillo, Managing Partners
with Garrigues walker, President. |
When Henry
Ford II arrived in Valencia (Spain) in 1974 to inaugurate
the facilities in the plant that Ford, the car company,
had built in Almusafes, he was introduced to Antonio
Garrigues Walker, the managing partner of J&A
Garrigues, the law firm instructed to advise on
the investment. "Everyone has spoken to me
about Garrigues in the United States. I thought
you were a tax," Henry Ford II told his attorney.
Perhaps this anecdote sums up better than any other
Garrigues’ importance in the history of economic
and business ties between Spain and the United States.
Garrigues
was founded in 1941 and is now in its 65th year
(the retirement age in Spain) as the foremost firm
of lawyers and tax advisers in continental Europe.
The firm is undoubtedly a byword( synonym) for the
modern Spanish legal tradition. Its founders were
the brothers Joaquin and Antonio Garrigues y Díaz-Cañabate,
the uncle and father of the Firm’s current
Chairman. Joaquín is recognized as the great
Spanish commercial lawyer of the 20th century and
Antonio is regarded as the great ‘modernizer’
of the Spanish legal profession.
Since those
difficult times when Ford arrived in Spain (remember
that General Franco was still alive and that the
country had yet to join the European Economic Community,
now the EU because it did not have a democratic
government) the Firm has been a veritable ‘bridge
for law and business’ between Spain and the
United States.
"From
Spain’s standpoint, Ford’s investment
was the first tangible step on the road to the country’s
economic modernization" recalls Antonio Garrigues
for the Washington Times. "This was because
the investment put Spain on the international map.
Moreover, it was a factor for economic and political
stability that paved the way for new influxes of
capital into our country. Spain opened up to the
world and for this we have Ford and the United States
to thank."
By 1973
J&A Garrigues had already opened a representative
office in New York. It was the first Spanish firm
to gain a foothold in the United States. Since then,
there has been an unbroken link between the Garrigues
family, and the Firm, and the U.S. business and
economic scene. The founder, Antonio Garrigues y
Díaz-Cañabate, married an American,
Helen Walker, and was Spain’s ambassador in
the JFK era, with whom he came to enjoy a close
personal and family relationship. It is also important
to note that his son, Antonio Garrigues Walker,
has chaired the United States-Spain Council Foundation
for more than ten years.
Garrigues
was always a pioneering firm that was ahead of its
time. It was the first to open an office in Brussels
(the administrative hub of the EU); it created the
first international network of firms–the Club
de Abogados–with one arm in Europe and another
in Latin America; and it was the first firm to become
a partnership in Spain.
Garrigues
had to leave the Club de Abogados when the firm
agreed to merge in 1997 with Andersen Asesores Legales
y Tributarios (ALT), a merger that turned both into
the main law firm in Spain, with 800 professionals
and the largest and most prestigious worldwide network
at its service.
In the wake of the Enron crisis and the disappearance
of the Andersen universe (2002), Garrigues made
the brave decision to preserve its regained independence,
look ahead and go it alone. That risky decision
yielded rewards, thanks to the unwavering support
of the entire team of professionals in the firm,
under the charge of its two managing directors,
José María Alonso and Miguel Gordillo.
Both are still at the helm today, having been re-elected
in the summer of 2006 for a new mandate. The management
model, based on a two-pronged approach, has worked
so effectively that today it is yet another example
to be followed by other major Spanish firms.
The loss
of the Andersen network forced Garrigues to rebuild
its international business model almost from scratch
and at great speed. Garrigues had to act rapidly,
since its aim was to become a ‘Global Firm’;
with expertise in all fields of business law, it
can provide the full spectrum of legal services,
and it has the capability to do so wherever in the
world its clients demand such services.
In the
past two years, Garrigues has addressed its clients’
needs by opening four proprietary international
offices in: Lisbon and Oporto (Portugal), Shanghai
(China) and Casablanca (Morocco). However, above
all, the Firm’s major international venture
is known as ‘Affinitas.’ This is a Latin
American alliance of law firms promoted in February
2004 by the Spanish firm and comprising major firms
in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico
and Portugal. Affinitas, which today boasts over
2000 professionals, is the result of a far-reaching
strategic agreement, the principal goals of which
are to ensure a seamless high-quality service and
the ability to provide clients with identical legal
assistance and advice in any of those countries
as if they were provided by one firm.
Another
name making itself strongly felt on the international
stage is ‘Taxand,’ a global alliance of
independent tax firms, whose ‘vision’
is to soon become the only real alternative to the
‘Big Four.’ Taxand currently has more
than 1500 professionals (260 of whom are partners),
operating out of 31 countries. Moreover, Taxand
is growing fast: this year another ten countries
will have joined the alliance.
Garrigues,
a founding member of Taxand, is one of the largest
European firms providing tax advisory services and
its commanding position in continental Europe in
recent years has been mirrored by awards such as
‘Best Tax Firm’ and ‘Best Transfer
Pricing Firm in Spain’ from International Tax
Review (ITR) for two consecutive years.
Objectively
speaking, Garrigues is a major firm, this year it
has also been awarded "Law Firm of the Year
in Spain" from the prestigious International
Financial Law Review (IFLR) magazine. However, it
must also be pointed out that it is also an ‘atypical’
firm in that, above and beyond its core business,
it spares no effort or expense in caring about other
aspects of legal practice: for instance, in post-graduate
training (from its very own Centro de Estudios);
in the dissemination of legal knowledge (it publishes
its own collection of books), or in legal research
(for which it has ‘Fundación Garrigues’
and has created a ‘Chair in Global Law’
at the University of Navarra, one of Spain’s
most prestigious seats of learning). Indeed, the
Chair is investigating, in conjunction with U.S.
institutions and universities, precisely the possibility
of applying a Global Law, a venture in which the
United States must play a key role.
In our
globalized economy, Garrigues aims to be a top-tier
player with a global outlook, and it knows full
well that the achievement of such a key strategic
goal will be more feasible if that ‘bridge
for law and business’ stays open and remains
fully operational. As José María Alonso,
Garrigues Managing Partner, put it to the Washington
Times, "Like it or not, the United States has
become the leader in the globalization process,
as a consequence of its vast economic, technological
and cultural power." In his view, "Spain
and the United States share many economic interests
today, whether bilateral or in Latin America, and
they cannot be ignored. Garrigues aims to continue
playing an active role in these relations, so long
as enterprises and other players from both sides
continue placing their trust in our Firm, as has
been the case until now."
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Spain 
