Iñigo Erlaiz analyses the challenges facing the legal sector and defends Gómez-Acebo & Pombo’s organic growth model

Iñigo Erlaiz, managing partner of Gómez-Acebo & Pombo, analyses the main challenges facing the legal sector and highlights the firm’s “healthy and organic” growth model in Expansión. He defends a strategy based on positioning, financial strength and continuous improvement, as opposed to aggressive growth models. “For us, growth is a consequence and not an objective in itself ”, he says.

In this regard, he underlines that GA_P maintains a solid position, rules out the entry of private equity into the firm and stresses that independence and the partners’ sense of belonging are essential elements of the firm’s model.

The managing partner also addresses the rise in international competition and believes that the push from US law firms may create opportunities for national firms with a clear value proposition. In this context, GA_P is strengthening its relationships with leading firms in other countries in order to compete with global execution capabilities, while maintaining its status as an independent firm.

Erlaiz identifies artificial intelligence, talent attraction and geopolitical uncertainty as some of the major challenges facing the sector. The firm is already working on technological tools, training and internal innovation, while also reinforcing countercyclical practices such as restructuring, litigation and employment to offset the impact of a possible slowdown in transactional activity. “In this situation, investors naturally pull back, so from a transactional standpoint it is not going to be an easy year,” he acknowledges.

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