Several firms in Ecuador’s first diversified payment rights programme

Hogan Lovells LLP in New York and Ferrere (Ecuador) have helped Ecuador’s Banco del Pacífico set up the country’s first-ever securitisation programme for diversified payment rights.

Ecuador must commit to pay Perenco award to maintain stay

An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) committee has said it will stay enforcement of Perenco’s award of over US$400 million against Ecuador – but only if the state commits to pay that award in full in the event its annulment application is unsuccessful.

Change on the horizon

Ecuador is set to become the newest entrant to the market-friendly Pacific Alliance trade bloc, putting it on a path to receiving greater foreign investment. The legal markets of Ecuador’s prospective trade partners have opened up to foreign firms more than anywhere else in the region. At a roundtable in Quito law firm partners weighed up whether Ecuador’s local heavyweights should fear what is to come, or if there will be enough work to go around.

A balancing act

Lawyers don’t tend to leave a career in private practice to go in-house for the money, instead they’re often after better equilibrium between their professional and personal lives. Nowadays, law firms are competing better with companies on the work–life balance they offer their associates, but how successful are their efforts?