Squire Patton Boggs hires a six-member team to head its Spanish arm

Squire Patton Boggs hires a six-member team to head its Spanish arm

DLA Piper's private equity lawyer leaves the firm along with two legal directors

Washington DC-based law firm Squire Patton Boggs has hired DLA Piper's private equity and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) partner with a six-member team to head the firm's Spanish arm.

Teresa Zueco has joined Squire, one of the top 40 US firms as a partner in its global corporate practice in Madrid with two legal directors Rocio Garcia (M&A, real estate and re-organizations) and Pablo García (infrastructure, telecom and biotech sectors). Others in the team are: Alejandra Castañeda, Luis Gutiérrez, Alvaro Luaces and Mónica Sebares.

Their entry has brought the number of legal professionals in Squire's Madrid office to 36, including 11 partners.

Jonathan Jones, the firm's European managing partner said, "With Teresa and her team we can offer further cross-border transactional expertise for private equity firms, Spanish corporates and multinationals looking to invest in Spain and across the continent."

Zueco, who left DLA Piper after almost a decade, took over as the managing partner from corporate finance specialist Rafael Alonso, who served the firm for 11 years. He now becomes the senior partner in the Madrid office, Squire's sole location in the country.

Alonso described Zueco's appointment as "a new and exciting phase in the development of our practice in Spain," adding that she "has the vision and ambition to take our Madrid team forward to the next stage in its growth."

Zueco has over 20 years of experience advising on cross-border transactions and expertise in the healthcare, hospitality, technology and energy sectors. Her private equity practice involves working mostly with Spanish, French and US funds, predominantly in the mid-market.

Prior to joining DLA Piper in 2012, Zueco served for seven years as a local partner in the Paris office of Dewey & LeBoeuf. She was one of the lawyers to leave the US firm around the time it filed for bankruptcy. Before that, she was an associate in the Madrid and Brussels offices of the leading Spanish firm Garrigues for three years.