International law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and leading Spanish law firm Ramón & Cajal are delighted to announce that they have entered into an independent correspondent relationship to ensure clients have access to top-tier legal services in key geographic business centers. The relationship establishes formalized cooperation, client development and referral arrangements between the two firms.

Ty Fahner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw’s Chairman for the past eight years, said that this important relationship further extends the firm's global footprint into Continental Europe following the announcement of a similar relationship with Tonucci & Partners (formerly Studio Legale Tonucci) in January 2006.

"This pairing with Ramón & Cajal increases our ability to provide clients with superior service no matter where they need it,” said Paul Maher, Vice-Chairman elect and London Senior Partner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. “Significant commercial activity over the last few years in Spain, combined with an increase in foreign companies doing business in Spain as well as Spanish companies seeking to invest outside of the country, highlights the strategic importance of Spain."

Ramón & Cajal primarily advises corporate and financial clients and focuses on the provision of high quality legal advice to Spanish and international companies doing business in or from Spain.

Chairman of Ramón & Cajal, Pedro Ramón y Cajal Agüeras, and partner Alberto Alonso Ureba are, together with Francisco Palá Laguna and Francisco J. Bauzá Moré, managing and co-managing partners of the firm, respectively. They maintain day-to-day management of the merged firm while remaining focused on client transactions and relationship development.

"We look forward to working with an international firm which is as well respected globally as Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw,” said Francisco Palá Laguna managing partner at Ramón & Cajal. “We are ideally placed to assist its clients looking to expand their operations in Europe, and in particular, into Spain. The firm has an enviable market reputation, partner expertise and global capabilities. We welcome our new colleagues to Spain and look forward to introducing our people and clients to those who will help take this important two-way relationship forward."

Today, Ramón & Cajal has more than 70 lawyers, of whom 20 are partners. This enables both well staffed transactions for clients and the personal commitment and involvement of partners. It maintains offices in Madrid and serves clients operating across Spain and more widely in Europe and into South America.

The firm has a consolidated client base which includes many of the largest Spanish companies in terms of market capitalization. Over recent years, the firm has provided services to almost half of the companies comprising the Ibex-35 Index. Ramón & Cajal’s clients also include the Spanish Government and related agencies and companies as well as a growing number of foreign corporations.

"We are independent law firms but with complementary practices, so we have begun cross-referring work in a meaningful way particularly into and out of Paris,” said Jean-Philippe Lambert, Partner-in-Charge of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Paris. “We look forward to developing this relationship with our firm’s 13 other offices around the world to ensure our clients are receiving the best legal opportunities available."

"This announcement follows a year of close collaboration for Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw in Italy with Tonucci & Partners and the opening of the firm’s Hong Kong office,” continued James D. Holzhauer, Chairman elect, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. “With the inclusion of Ramón & Cajal to our extensive European and global network we are ever closer to realizing the goals we outlined when we combined Mayer, Brown and Rowe & Maw in 2002. Spain is an exciting and competitive market. Increasingly its largest companies are becoming global players in the business world. This is a great development for both firms."

The relationship between the two firms is significant in that there is an enormous overlap of the type of work on which both firms advise, including corporate (mergers and acquisitions, commercial advice and corporate governance), finance and banking, capital markets, restructuring and turnaround, competition and regulation, administrative law, real estate, planning, tax and litigation and dispute resolution.

The complementary service offerings will provide a strong platform for the establishment of the ongoing cross-referral of work as well as joint business development and marketing initiatives to help the two firms to work closely together across all areas of legal advice to clients.