Just a year ago, the Cuatrecasas law firm lost its general director, Jorge Badia, who died unexpectedly while playing sports. A hard blow for the firm, which in the meantime has found another lawyer to take the reins of the group: Javier Fontcuberta. “It has been a Copernican turn,” he admits. In reality, there are several Copernican turns that he has experienced in his working life: from lawyer to professor and, now, at 52 years old, from jurist to manager of a law firm that has more than 1,200 lawyers, 251 partners and a wide international presence. This lawyer has had a career in which he combined law with teaching. Animated by ideals of justice and passion for training his students in commercial law (Esade), he makes it a rule of life to consider a new professional challenge every five years. And so he has been chaining several challenges since he finished his law degree, which have led him to study negotiation at Harvard (USA), to study a PDD at Iese and a doctorate.
I wanted to understand how companies, which are our customers, think,” he explains. a positive year The firm breaks billing records and is committed to its international expansion During his time as a lawyer he was Job Function Email Database very involved in the automotive sector (Volkswagen group, among others) and in sports (Espanyol, of which he remains a convinced follower). He takes the reins of Cuatrecasas, a law firm that last year set a record in turnover (352 million euros in 2022, 4.7% more) despite the decline in corporate operations and the pandemic. From a strategic point of view, Cuatrecasas has made a determined commitment to Latin America (it has a presence in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), a continent that has experienced years of difficult economic growth. “We are convinced that there is a market for those investors who need legal advice for their businesses in the region, even from the United States,” he illustrates. Cuatrecasas also has a consolidated presence in Portugal for years (historically with the Gonçalves Pereira law firm), where it has just expanded its presence with the integration of another local law firm (SLCM – Serra Lopes, Cortes Martins & Associados.
Despite the passing of the years and new responsibilities, Fontcuberta maintains a certain idealism intact in his profession. “When your client is about to close a contract and seeks approval and authorization from his attorney before signing those moments are very gratifying,” she confesses. Or when a former student recognizes you after years and tells you that he has good memories of your classes. Even so, ideals have to face reality and the legal profession is, like many other sectors, in a transition phase. Fontcuberta points out some of the challenges of the coming years. One is technological. The emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) (which in itself is a tool capable of writing entire contracts by itself) is a powerful resource that opens new questions. Today at Cuatrecasas there are dozens of engineers who are studying how to incorporate this tool to help lawyers focus on value-added tasks. The second is talent retention. “Today you cannot offer professional plans to young people - who are more prepared than ever - in the long term, up to 20 years.
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