challenge today

Freshfields Legal

We help our clients grow, strengthen and defend their businesses. This means seeing things from their perspective, and building relationships that withstand the most pressurized situations.

Your route to Freshfields.

We combine local expertise, international experience and commercial acumen with fully integrated teams across key business practices.

Our lawyers know the market as well as they know the law. They:

  • have more than 25 years experience advising domestic and international clients in a wide range of industries, including financial institutions, energy and infrastructure, private equity and other financial investors, general industries and real estate;
  • are experts in key business practices including competition and antitrust, crisis management, critical contracts, litigation and arbitration, financing and capital raising, risk management, M&A, regulatory and public law, tax and employment;
  • regularly advice on highly complex and game-changing transactions for leading financial institutions, corporates and strategic and financial investors;
  • offer a ‘one-stop shop’ on deals that cross the borders of countries and practices; and
  • reflect who we are and what we stand for – we don’t just advise our clients , we do so in a responsible and sustainable way.

challenge today

You make our firm.

challenge today

Leave your mark.

challenge today

Connected globally.

Our practice areas

The Madrid office consists of five practice groups, each with their own specializations. The nature of the work requires that we regularly work in teams with different practice groups.

Our legal services are delivered across a range of practice areas including: Antitrust, Competition and Trade (ACT), Global Transactions (Corporate, Finance, Real Estate), Tax, Dispute Resolution and People and Reward (P&R).

Freshfields has international reach. This means that even in the most complex cases, involving several jurisdictions and countries, we can offer our clients an excellent service everywhere.

Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Antitrust, Competition and Trade

Our top-tier, well-rounded Spanish antitrust practice acts for the biggest clients in highly complex mandates across the antitrust spectrum and offers a leading competition practice, as demonstrated by our central role in the most prominent cases in the Spanish market and internationally. Our Antitrust, Competition and Trade team received the prestigious Best Firm of the Year award (Iberian Lawyer Labour Awards) in 2019 and consistently occupies top positions in international legal directories (Chambers and Legal 500).

We advise on all relevant areas for antitrust: merger control, behavioral agreements and conduct with other parties, antitrust litigation, cartels, competition compliance, dominance and market abuse, market and sector investigations, State aid and foreign investment approvals.
Our practice encompasses antitrust expertise across Spain’s most important industries, including: energy and renewables, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, logistics, consumer and retail, media and technology, general industries, tobacco, automotive, aerospace and defence. Our client base includes a well-balanced mix of Spanish public and private companies as well as major multinationals.
Antitrust, competition and trade is a truly international practice with access to the shared knowledge and training of our global antitrust group, which is widely perceived to be one of the best in the world, something no other firm in Spain can match.

 

Corporate and M&A

Corporate and M&A

Few firms can match our M&A team’s Spanish and international cross-practice legal expertise, and our ability to seamlessly collaborate across borders.

Our Corporate and M&A team has received several prestigious awards (FT Innovative Lawyer Awards, PERE Awards and Legal Business Awards) and offers the highest credentials including consistent top positions in international legal directories (Chambers and Legal 500) and the annual league tables for legal advisers (Mergermarket, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg).

We offer our clients an exceptional practice and market-leading experience in M&A. Our areas of expertise are carve-outs, corporate governance, joint ventures, listed companies, private M&A, public M&A, capital markets and reorganizations. Our team provides the adaptability and flexibility our clients need in both domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, especially when the deal structure changes.

You will receive further training during your time with us through courses, discussion groups and conferences. You will always be up to date or already one step ahead of the competition. In addition, you can regularly exchange information and views on current topics from the practice of corporate law through regular team meetings to discuss technical and team-related topics.

 

Dispute Resolution

Dispute Resolution

In Spain, we act for both major local and international clients in the most complex, high-profile matters, where our areas of expertise are: international arbitration, antitrust litigation, product liability and consumer litigation, commercial disputes, banking and financial services disputes, construction and engineering disputes, global investigations, and restructuring and insolvency.
We offer legal advice of the highest standard. Our team works across sectors and has the ability to rapidly assemble multi-practice teams of local and international lawyers to meet our clients’ needs.
Our global arbitration group has been recognized by the leading specialized publications: ranked number one in Global Arbitration Review’s GAR 100 for several years, ranked in top positions in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe and Legal 500, and also winning Who’s Who Legal Global Law Firm of the Year award for Arbitration for several years.
The training programme will provide you with specialist knowledge of the practice area as well as the essential framework conditions that play a role in the practice’s work. Our national and international practice and sector meetings will give you the opportunity to discuss professional issues and to build your own network across the firm, helping to consolidate our international cooperation through personal contacts.

We offer legal advice of the highest standard. Our team works across sectors and has the ability to rapidly assemble multipractice teams of local and international lawyers to meet our client’s needs.

Our global arbitration group has been recognized by the leading specialized publications: ranked number one in Global Arbitration Review’s GAR 100 for several years, ranked top positions in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe and Legal 500 and won Who’s Who Legal Global Law Firm of the Year award for Arbitration several years.

The training programme will provide you with specialist knowledge of the practice group as well as the essential frame work conditions that play a role in their matters. Our national and international practice and sector meetings will give you the opportunity to discuss professional issues and to create your own net of contacts within the firm, helping consolidate our international cooperation through personal contacts.

Finance

Finance

Our service spans jurisdictions, products and markets to structure deals in response to market developments and client needs. Our lawyers in Spain are seamlessly integrated into our global network so offer a truly international service. We consistently occupy top positions in international legal directories (Chambers and Legal 500).

Our Finance law team advises banks and financial service providers on all corporate law issues. Our areas of expertise are asset finance, hybrid capital, infrastructure finance, leveraged finance, project finance, real estate finance, restructuring and insolvency and securitization.

The training programme will provide you with specialist knowledge of contract and corporate law as well as the essential framework conditions that play a role in financial transactions. The seminars developing this expertise focus on finance law, while our international finance training programme gives you the necessary insight into Anglo-Saxon transaction practice. The seminars provide you with an understanding of cross-border transactions and offer a platform for intensive exchange with international colleagues.

 

People and reward

People and reward

Our P&R team has a reputation for providing innovative and cutting-edge advice, and we are the ‘go-to team’ for strategic legal, commercial and sensitive HR issues. Our areas of expertise are: business and human rights, cross-border transactions, employment disputes, executive pay and corporate governance, hiring and firing, labour relations, non-standard forms of employment, pensions, remuneration and incentive schemes, whistleblowing, workplace investigations and workforce restructuring.
We draw on and contribute to the group’s expertise in coordinating employment advice across multiple jurisdictions. Our clients benefit from the insight of our local employment practices across Europe, the US and Asia.
Locally, you will discuss current developments in case law and legislation, while internationally, the programme focuses on comparative law issues, European law topics and cross-border mandates.

We draw on and contribute to the group’s expertise in coordinating employment advice across multiple jurisdictions. Our clients benefit from the insight of our local employment practices across Europe, the US and Asia.

Locally, you will discuss current developments in case law and legislation, while internationally, the programme focuses on comparative law issues, European law topics and cross-border mandates.

Real Estate

Real Estate

We offer an international approach founded on leading local capabilities and experience, backed up by the knowledge and experience of the wider firm. Our Real estate team focusses on transactional issues and work involving the major real estate investment trust in Spain and international private equities and investment and pension funds, assisting in all aspects of the transactions, including both corporate and joint venture advice, as well as on pure acquisition, leasing and disposal mandates.

We have wide experience helping major international investors enter the Spanish market for the first time, we regularly act for the largest investors in the Spanish real estate sector and we also act for major international clients as deal counsel in transactions abroad. Our areas of expertise are construction, corporate real estate, financing, acquisition of NPLs and repossessed assets, leasing and rentals, planning and environmental law, real estate development, real estate finance, distressed acquisitions and real estate tax.

On your way to becoming an industry expert, we provide you with all-important knowledge in the real estate sector. This includes knowledge of aspects of corporate law, financing, civil and public law relevant to our advice. Our Europe-wide conferences and secondment programmes provide you with opportunities for professional exchange with international colleagues and for networking.

We have wide experience helping major international investors enter the Spanish market for the first time, we regularly act for the largest investors in the Spanish real estate sector and we also act for major international clients as deal counsel in transactions abroad. Our areas of expertise are construction, corporate real estate, financing, acquisition of NPLs and repossessed assets, leasing and rentals, planning and environmental law, real estate development, real estate finance, distressed acquisitions and real estate tax.

On your way to becoming an industry expert, we provide you with all-important knowledge in the real estate sector. This includes knowledge of aspects of corporate law, financing, civil and public law relevant to our advice. Our Europe-wide conferences and secondment programmes provide you with opportunities for professional exchange with international colleagues and for networking.

Tax

Tax

All our tax lawyers in Spain cover the full range of tax areas and have a sound understanding of corporate and finance issues.

The practice group offers a standalone tax-finance practice, and an exceptional tax-M&A practice. Our tax team is business-minded and takes the time to understand the dynamics and culture of our clients. We advise on the most complex domestic and cross-border transactions to assist on any deal, and we can get involved in non-Spanish transactions as tax counsel, which we believe is unprecedented in the Spanish market.

The training programme will provide you with specialist knowledge of tax law as well as the essential general knowledge required to play a role in all types of transactions (including M&A, restructuring, financing and real estate transactions). You will also discuss current Spanish and international topics with people across our international tax group.