About
ARAOZ & RUEDA is a leading Spanish independent firm with a broad-based corporate and commercial practice and particular expertise and market recognition in M&A and private equity. Formed in 1994, the firm was recognised early on by the specialised magazines and legal guides as an ‘M&A boutique’. Having grown in size and expanded its scope of services over time, the firm has participated in many of the most significant national and international transactions with blue-chip clients and other leading law firms and involving both listed and non-listed companies. The firm has a strong and growing international orientation with a significant base of international clients and most of its lawyers having international experience and/or education. The firm also provides legal advice in a wide range of practice areas, including: Private equity and venture capital: The firm has broad experience in advising private equity investors and venture capital entities in a variety of sectors and for all forms of investments (shares, senior, mezzanine and participative loans, etc) and divestments. M&A/corporate: The firm has wide experience advising in: Mergers and acquisitions of companies, takeover bids and purchase of assets, including the performance of these transactions in bankruptcy and pre-bankruptcy scenarios. Incorporation of companies and joint-venture structuring. Demerger, liquidation and dissolution of companies. MBOs, MBIs, LBO´s, BIMBO´s, etc. Energy: The firm has a highly specialized and multidisciplinary team of lawyers with a sound understanding knowledge of the energy sector, particularly in relation to renewable energy projects where they provide clients with a comprehensive legal advice, providing practical solutions in all legal issues arising from an energy project at any stage and combining the regulatory, contractual, real estate, corporate and finance aspects. Tax: The firm’s tax practice covers all aspects of corporate taxation and tax structuring. Employment: The firm’s advice includes collective and individual dismissals, union-related matters, plant closings and work transfers and involves an extensive litigation practice. Banking and finance: The firm advises financial entities as well as borrowers in a broad range of sectors and transactions, including corporate financing, structured finance, acquisition finance, project finance and real estate finance. Litigation: In the litigation area the firm acts in all sorts of judicial proceedings in corporate and commercial matters, representing clients before courts of all levels. Real estate: The firm has broad experience in sale and purchase agreements, transfer, lease agreements and management and administration of all kinds of real estate assets and real estate companies and advises on the financing of real estate projects and carries out related due diligence. Regulatory and compliance: The firm helps clients manage the myriad of national, regional and local regulations affecting their industries. It also represents clients in proceedings before regulatory authorities such as the Spanish Energy Commission, the Spanish Telecommunications Commission as well as the Spanish Securities Commission. Capital markets and securities regulation: The firm has advised various listed Spanish companies in a variety of transactions involving the securities markets. Insolvency and restructuring: The firm has a specialisation in insolvency law and restructuring, having provided advice both in the preparation of the petition for voluntary insolvency proceedings and defence of the client’s interests during the whole processes and to the administrators appointed by the Commercial Courts. The firm also regularly advises creditors in insolvency proceedings. Administrative: The firm advises numerous clients in a wide range of sectors (outdoor advertising, street furniture, motorways, defence, etc), evaluating the proposals of potential bidders in tenders with the Public Administration and advising on the necessary legal requirements. Competition (antitrust): The firm advises on all aspects of competition law, including merger notifications, antitrust compliance programmes, transactional matters and co-operative agreements. Unfair competition: The firm has made successful court claims against acts of unfair competition injurious to the interests of its clients. Intellectual property: The firm is particularly involved in licensing, contractual and commercial exploitation of intellectual property. National and international contracting: The firm advises in national as well as international commercial contracting in a wide range of manufacturing, distribution, purchasing, sale, licensing, installation, outsourcing, marketing, telecommunications, sponsorship, etc. National and international arbitration: As a natural offshoot of its corporate and commercial orientation, the firm advises clients in arbitral proceedings, under the rules of both international and domestic institutions. Furthermore, partners of the firm are frequently designated as arbitrators in international arbitrations administered by the aforementioned arbitral institutions. Clients: The firm represents foreign clients in a variety of industries, including the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemicals, engineering, telecommunications, media and technology, automotive, healthcare, transport and logistics and leisure industries. ### Languages - English - French - German ### Staffing Figures - 36 Number of lawyers
Office locations
Madrid
Madrid
Araoz & Rueda Paseo De La Castellana 164 28046 Madrid Madrid Spain
Practice areas
Lawyers in this office
Ainhoa Veiga
Partner in the Competition and EU Law Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2005. She is specialized in Competition/EU Competition, advising clients before the Spanish/EU competition authorities. Ainhoa has also extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, unfair competition and on intellectual property matters. · Competition
Alejandro Fernández de Araoz
Partner at Araoz & Rueda, he co-founded the firm in 1994. He has developed his practice advising in general corporate and commercial matters and, especially, in Mergers and Acquisitions and Capital Markets, where he has extensive experience. Furthermore, he regularly advises in corporate litigation and restructuring/insolvency matters. · Corporate / M&A
Clara Mañoso
Partner in the Employment Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2021. Clara advises in labour matters to all kind of national and international clients, including the labour aspects arising from the acquisition of companies and those related to senior management. She acts regularly in defense of our clients’ interests representing them in conflicts before the labour courts and labour authorities. She has also advised in the preparation of collective procedures (workforce restructurings, collective dismissals and temporary suspension of contracts). · Employment
Eduardo de León
Partner in the Dispute Resolution and Administrative Law Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2013. He has broad experience in advising a wide range of clients in disputes before the Spanish Courts, as well as in the area of administrative law and related proceedings. · Dispute Resolution
Francisco Solchaga
Partner in the Energy Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2007. Francisco is specialized in energy, advising on numerous projects relating to the promotion and financing of wind and solar plants. He has also extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions and securities markets. · Energy
Javier Prieto
Javier Prieto, partner of the Tax Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2011. Javier is specialized in tax advice arising from national and international M&A transactions (investment/divestment structures and private equity funds), design of tax efficient acquisitions and financing structures, tax due diligence procedures, inspections and tax litigation, international taxation, tax planning for investors, among others. · Tax
Jesús Conde
Partner in the Real Estate Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2016. Throughout his career he has specialized in projects of restructuring, negotiation and execution of international real estate transactions, handling civil, commercial, planning and administrative aspects of matters such as auction sales and sale & lease back transactions of industrial and commercial premises. He has also focused on office and retail complex leases and forward funding agreements. · Real Estate
Laura Vintanel
Partner in the Energy Department at Araoz & Rueda, since 2020, she joined the firm as an associate in 2011. Laura advises national and multinational companies in corporate related matters, focusing in the area of energy law. Her advice includes all kind of corporate and commercial matters as well as those directly related to the regulatory issues arising from the acquisition and financing of renewable energy (mainly photovoltaic and wind) projects. · Energy
Pedro Rueda
Partner in the M&A/Corporate Department at Araoz & Rueda, he cofounded the firm in 1994. He has developed his practice in the area of Mergers and Acquisitions, where he has extensive experience in advising all sorts of industrial and financial clients – both on behalf of the buyer and the seller – in joint-ventures, splits and mergers and acquisitions, including both public offers of purchase and sale of stock and purchase and sale of assets. · Mergers & Acquisitions
Pilar París
Pilar París, Partner of the Corporate/M&A Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2024, has more than 15 years of experience advising all types of industrial, financial and family group clients in M&A national and cross-border transactions, in an array of different sectors, being also specialised in investments under the venture-capital framework. She also has extensive experience in acquisitions or sales of real estate assets, leading the negotiation of all types of contracts and the global coordination in multiple jurisdictions, including the sale or acquisition of assets related to both greenfield and brownfield renewable projects. Throughout her professional career, he has also accumulated extensive experience advising all types of financing, refinancing and financial restructurings, both bilateral and syndicated, in its various forms of Corporate Finance, Asset Finance, Project Finance or Real-Estate Finance. · Corporate / M&A
Rafael Bazán
Partner in the Banking & Finance Department at Araoz & Rueda since 2017. Rafael has extensive experience in all kinds of national and cross-border transactions involving corporate finance, acquisition finance, asset finance and restructuring of companies in crisis, advising both banks and affected companies in all sectors, with a special focus on the real estate, financial and industrial sectors. In the last five years he has advised both selling banks and investors in transactions involving the acquisition of many of the most significant non-performing loan and asset portfolios in the market. He also has extensive experience in regulatory issues involving supervisory authorities. · Banking & Finance
Ángel Alonso
Ángel Alonso, Partner of the Special Situations, Restructuring & Insolvency Department at Araoz & Rueda, joined the firm in 2025. During his career of more than twenty-five years, Ángel has specialized in all types of matters related to opportunistic and special situations, restructuring plans, distressed transactions (credit and M&A), and insolvency issues in general, advising a wide range of stakeholders – debtors, special sits funds, lenders – on some of the most significant and often cross-border cases in this field. · Restructuring & Insolvency
Ángel S. Freire
Ángel S. Freire, Araoz & Rueda Partner since 2023, joined the firm as an associate in 2013. Ángel specializes in Dispute Resolution, particularly in the area of arbitration, acting as counsel, arbitrator and administrative secretary in several arbitration proceedings in diverse jurisdictions and languages, both ad hoc and administered by international institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and national institutions, such as the Madrid Arbitration Court (CAM), the Civil and Commercial Court of Arbitration (CIMA), the Asociación para el Ejercicio de la Mediación y el Arbitraje (ASEMARB) and the Chambre de Comerce et d’Industrie de Paris (CCIP). He has also experience in mediation before the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR). · Dispute Resolution