Pérez-Llorca today announced its intention to open an office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2026, in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), one of the main international financial centres in the region.
The decision is part of the firm’s international strategy and responds to structural developments in global capital flows. Gulf-based institutional and private investors have been taking an increasingly significant role in financing and acquiring assets in jurisdictions such as the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America and Portuguese-speaking African countries.
This new Pérez-Llorca office in Abu Dhabi will be headed by Gonçalo Capela Godinho, current Country Chair of the Lisbon office. With a strong international profile and extensive experience in advising clients on complex, cross-border transactions, Capela Godinho will lead the office’s establishment and drive the development of institutional and commercial relationships in the region. Initially, two Pérez-Llorca associates will make the move alongside Gonçalo Capela Godinho.
With Capela Godinho’s departure to Abu Dhabi, the Lisbon office will be headed by Carlos Vaz de Almeida, who will be Managing Partner, while Inês Arruda and Adolfo Mesquita Nunes will be Country Co-chairs.
Abu Dhabi: a strategic international investment hub
The future Pérez-Llorca office in Abu Dhabi will serve as a platform for relationship, origination and execution, aimed at supporting Gulf investors in overseas investment projects, working closely with Pérez-Llorca’s teams in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Colombia, as well as with the Lusophone Africa practice coordinated from Lisbon.
The firm’s presence in Abu Dhabi is not intended to develop local legal practice in the Middle East. On the contrary, it aims to strengthen the firm’s proximity to international capital sources that invest in markets where Pérez-Llorca has effective capacity to enforce local law, ensuring an integrated, rigorous approach with a high degree of control over legal enforcement.
According to Gonçalo Capela Godinho, the Pérez-Llorca partner who will lead the project, “by opening an office in Abu Dhabi, we can be closer to investors who have been playing an increasingly important role in transactions in the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America and Portuguese-speaking Africa. This is consistent with our strategy of orderly growth and our focus on advising on complex cross-border transactions, combining client proximity with direct legal enforcement in the relevant jurisdictions.”
Jorge Mondragón, Country Chair of Pérez-Llorca in Mexico, pointed out that “the strengthening of economic ties between Mexico and the United Arab Emirates is opening up new investment opportunities in strategic sectors. Having a presence in Abu Dhabi reinforces our ability to accompany our clients in increasingly sophisticated transactions with cross-border components.”
In recent years, the trade relationship between Mexico and the United Arab Emirates has shown a trend of sustained growth. According to official figures from the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bilateral non-oil trade exceeded $2.6 billion in 2024, with annual growth of over 3%, reflecting greater dynamism in trade and mutual interest in deepening economic cooperation.
The Abu Dhabi office will work in an integrated manner with the rest of Pérez-Llorca’s international offices, including London, New York, Brussels and Singapore, strengthening the firm’s position as a leading legal partner in international investments that require local depth, international coordination and close client relationship management.
Portugal: strengthening the Iberian project and international momentum
In parallel, Pérez-Llorca is reaffirming its commitment to Portugal, where the firm has experienced significant growth above expectations in just two years. The Lisbon office has undergone a very significant expansion, both in financial terms and in terms of the number of professionals, and now has a solid presence in the Portuguese legal market.
The office currently employs more than 60 people, with 14 partners leading multidisciplinary teams covering all areas of business law, as well as key sectors.
In keeping with the ambition for growth that characterises Pérez-Llorca and its international vocation, the office is now entering a new phase of consolidation. This stage involves a governance structure tailored to the size already achieved and the demands of a project with a strong Iberian and international focus, similar to what Pérez-Llorca has done in other jurisdictions.
In this context, a new structure has been created in Lisbon, based on a Managing Partner, with executive functions, and two Country Co-chairs. Carlos Vaz de Almeida will assume the role of the firm’s Managing Partner, while Inês Arruda and Adolfo Mesquita Nunes will act as Country Co-chairs.
“We are extremely grateful to Gonçalo for his work over the years in Lisbon, who is handing over the management of this office to three outstanding professionals. We believe that this new structure reinforces the firm’s commitment to Portugal as a long-term strategic project and reflects our desire to continue promoting sustainable growth, supported by consolidated teams and solid technical excellence,” said Pedro Pérez-Llorca, senior partner at Pérez-Llorca.
“With great ambition and vision, Gonçalo Capela Godinho, alongside the management team in Spain, was able to quickly build a unique team of carefully selected professionals, enabling the Portuguese arm of the firm to reach the level of maturity and implementation it enjoys today. The firm can only be grateful to him, especially at a time when he is taking on an equally important challenge in the context of Pérez-Llorca’s internationalisation strategy. I am grateful to the management team for the trust they have placed in me and I approach this appointment with the same responsibility and enthusiasm, at a particularly important time for the project and for the firm’s ambitions and high standards,” stated Carlos Vaz de Almeida, Managing Partner of Pérez-Llorca’s Lisbon office.
International strategy: sustained growth and presence in global decision-making centres
The intention to open an office in Abu Dhabi is part of Pérez-Llorca’s international expansion plan, aimed at strengthening its presence in strategic centres and consolidating its capacity to support clients and investors in global transactions.
This initiative responds to the need to provide full coverage for the firm in a region with growing influence on global investment flows and a central role in international financial decision-making.
Pérez-Llorca’s international trajectory began in 2015 with the opening of offices in London and New York, continued with Brussels and was consolidated with Singapore, thus covering the financial capitals of the three major regions of global economic development and the European regulatory capital. This strategy culminated in 2024, when Pérez-Llorca entered the Mexican legal market, and in 2025, when it entered the Colombian market, thus becoming a leading Ibero-American law firm.
“We are very proud of everything we are building internationally. We are advancing faster than we expected in our strategy, and that drives us to continue growing our international presence so that we can continue to support our clients in their transactions, litigation and regulatory matters, while also helping our talent to develop in an international environment,” said Iván Delgado, Pérez-Llorca’s international executive partner.