EY integrates, effective 1 February 2022, Samaniego Law, the first Ibero-American alternative law firm and one of the first Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) in the Spanish-speaking world. Javier Fernández-Samaniego, founder of Samaniego Law five years ago, joins EY Abogados as a partner in charge of Legal Managed Services (LMS) and as leader of LMS Markets for the Europe West region.
The integration extends to all areas of Samaniego Law, including Legal, headed by Samaniego himself, and Legaltech and Managed Services, headed by Manuel Esteban, as well as its Projects area, headed by lawyer Silvia Pérez-Navarro.
This transaction is a further step in the Legal Managed Services strategy initiated by EY with the acquisition of Riverview Law in 2018 and Pangea3 Legal Managed Services in 2019 (belonging to Thomson Reuters). With the incorporation of Samaniego Law, EY continues its commitment to technology and innovation with the aim of becoming a world leader in the Legal Managed Services (LMS) segment, which it intends to continue expanding both in Spain and in the rest of the Spanish-speaking countries.
LMS encompasses the total or partial outsourcing of departments so that companies can better manage their legal activity and expenses, relying on technology as a facilitator of these processes. In addition to generating significant efficiencies and cost savings for firms, LMSs reduce routine or large-scale tasks, allowing lawyers in legal departments to focus on more value-added functions.
EY’s Legal Management Services department, together with the Consulting area, combines the provision of legal advice with the improvement of legal processes and the digital transformation of companies’ legal departments. The integration of Samaniego Law will represent an important step in the field of digital transformation services for the Legal sector.
“The incorporation of Samaniego Law will allow us to continue growing in two ways. On the one hand, it will boost and strengthen EY Abogados’ technology and dispute resolution area, where Javier Samaniego and his legal team bring new capabilities, especially in alternative dispute resolution (international arbitration, mediation and online dispute resolution) and reinforce the firm’s existing capabilities in technology, data protection and cybersecurity. On the other hand, it will accelerate the Legal Managed Services offering that Samaniego Law provides as an ALSP or alternative law firm.”
Ramón Palacín, managing partner of EY Abogados
The combination of EY’s existing capabilities, as well as its experience in consulting and robotics projects, are critical to advise on any digital transformation process of a company, in general, and of the legal advice departments, in particular, and are a key prerequisite to be able to undertake projects to improve costs and optimise resources in the short and medium-term.
“We have worked with EY on global projects and have been impressed by their capabilities and innovation. We are excited to take this new step in the relationship to be able to count on their extraordinary team and have access to their tools to provide a more sophisticated service to our clients based on technology and out-of-the-box thinking. With this addition, we intend to offer more robust and complete solutions that respond to current market needs and challenges.”
Javier Fernández-Samaniego
