DLA Piper has ended its formal relationship with Venezuelan firm InterJuris, reducing its presence in Latin America to Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.
Caracas-based DLA InterJuris will once again become independent, and known going forward as InterJuris Abogados, just five years after the pair came together.
DLA Piper sealed its alliance in Venezuela in 2011 as part of an aggressive push into the region designed to link up with the then recent launch of a Miami office, but the firm has confirmed InterJuris is no longer a member of the DLA Piper Group, which is an alliance of legal practices operating under the brand without being members of the firm.
InterJuris was founded by energy lawyer Juan José Delgado and corporate lawyer Maria Cecilia Rachadell, who also acted as foreign legal consultants at the firm’s Miami office as part of the alliance.
A DLA Piper spokesperson said: ‘We have restructured our relationship with DLA InterJuris in Venezuela, which will now do business as InterJuris Abogados, S.C. Going forward, InterJuris will no longer function as a DLA Piper relationship firm.’
The spokesperson added: ‘However, we will continue to engage the services of the InterJuris team in Caracas, led by Juan Jose Delgado Alvarez, Maria Cecilia Rachadell and Gabriela Rachadell de Delgado, on behalf of clients doing business in Venezuela. In addition, they will continue to work as foreign legal consultants for DLA Piper.’
It is the second affiliate DLA Piper has axed in a year, with the firm ending its formal alliance with South Africa’s Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr last year before launching two offices of its own in the country.
DLA Piper entered Colombia at the start of last year through a combination with Martinez Neira Abogados, which renamed that practice DLA Piper Martinez Neira, and combined with Mexican firm Gallastegui y Lozano in June later that year.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk