I recently had the pleasure of visiting with my good friend Sebastián Carey – one of the world’s leading experts on technology and the law – at his home in Chile. We talked not only about the latest developments in legal IT, but also about the new interest of law firms from the UK, the US and other countries in establishing a presence in Latin America.
Sebastián’s role as an advisor to international firms in the field of legal information technology, particularly in Latin America, was recently acknowledged by the prestigious Legal IT Insider newsletter based in the UK, which sees Latin America as a major contender – along with China and South Africa – for a dramatic increase in activity by international law firms in the near future.
“Baker & McKenzie and White & Case already have a presence there,” writes Charles Christian, publisher of Legal IT Insider, “while Dentons, Garrigues Abogados, DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright and Hogan Lovells are all in talks with potential partners/looking to open offices. In fact Joe Andrew, the global chair of Dentons, has been quoted as saying the Latin American legal market ‘is on the brink of a seismic change’.”
As for Sebastián, a sidebar to the article describes him as a “great source of on-the-ground intelligence on the Latin American legal IT scene.” I couldn’t agree more – and I happen to know that he has a very large group of clients, nearly 1000, of which most rank in Band 1 or Band 2 in Chambers and Partners, Latin America.
You can download the September, 2013 issue (#267) of Legal IT Insider here (check out page 11 for the article I’ve referred to in this post). You can contact Sebastián Carey directly at scarey@tecnolex.cl
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