Highly trained professionals, with international education and exposure.
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With more than twenty-three years of experience, Tobar ZVS has earned an incomparable reputation in areas such as: Tax and Labor Consultancy; Corporate M&A; Antitrus and Competition; Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Disputes; Intellectual Property and Anti-Piracy; and, Natural Resources, Energy and Infrastructure.
The Firm was created in 1993 by Bernardo Tobar as Tobar & Tobar. In 1996 its name was changed to Tobar & Bustamante, and at the end of 2015 it took on the name Tobar ZVS, which acknowledges partners Cesar Zumarraga, Oscar Vela and Alvaro Sevilla, who along with the founding partner, have headed up the historic growth of the Firm.
Ecuadorian firm Tobar ZVS and multinational firm Kennedys have entered into a strategic alliance to strengthen their insurance practice in the Americas. The alliance will uniquely position Tobar ZVS and Kennedys to provide high-quality legal services to clients within Ecuador and around the world. Both firms will maintain their independence.
The collaboration will enable Kennedys to foster its regional expansion, adding an additional associate office to its already solid network. Tobar ZVS will widen its suite of products and solutions to local clients looking to expand globally as well as international clientele with cross-border needs.
“Forming an association with Kennedys strengthens our insurance practice and our ability to service our international clientele. We are looking forward to combining our expertise with the Kennedys team to serve the many shared clients we have and expand our global reach.” Said Managing Partner Bernardo Tobar.
Founded in 1993, Tobar ZVS is a full-service corporate law firm advising national and international clients on corporate, M&A, antitrust and competition, insurance, data protection, compliance, intellectual property, energy, natural resources, dispute resolution, tax, finance, fintech and environmental, amongst the key practice areas.
Tobar ZVS’s insurance practice is led by Partner René de Sola who commented “The strategic alliance with Kennedys enhances both firms’ depth and reach in key business sectors, such as insurance, and unlocks access to expert local knowledge. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner”
Kennedys’ Miami office serves as the hub for the firm’s Latin American presence. Kennedys has the largest reach of any insurance law firm with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, and six associate offices in Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama Puerto Rico, and recently Bolivia and Ecuador.
Anna Weiss, regional managing partner for LATAM and Caribbean at Kennedys, says: “There are excellent synergies between both firms, and I am delighted we have been able to formalise the association with Tobar ZVS.”
Alex Guillamont, partner at Kennedys, says: “We continue our expansion in the region with new associate offices, with whom we have worked and built a solid relationship serving mutual clients and have a proven record of success after working together for several years.”
Tobar ZVS announces the adoption of Kira, the AI-driven document analysis software that is now part of Litera’s Workflow product family, as part of an ongoing commitment to move its product offering from traditional service delivery models into a radically new client experience model. Tobar ZVS is the first law firm in Ecuador to adopt Kira.
“We have already automated and digitalize many components of our legal products and client experience, including workflows, project management, contract drafting, data management, and collaboration tools, but were persuaded that AI not only brings about significant efficiencies but enables outcomes that would not be possible or practical to the human eye alone.” said Bernardo Tobar, Managing Partner at Tobar ZVS. “We implemented AI for English language documents in 2021 and after reading AI For Lawyers, which was co-authored by Kira’s co-founders, we decided to test Kira, which can be trained in Spanish and has the added advantage of integrating with our digital operations platform, and have been impressed with how Kira has allowed us to solve specific client needs in a way that wouldn’t be possible through conventional methods, making our Firm’s value proposition unique”, added Mr. Tobar.
Kira will be used as part of an ongoing commitment to deliver innovative and results-oriented legal solutions to clients who seek counsel on M&A, Data Protection and Privacy Assessments, Compliance, Real Estate matters, Contract and Clause Bank Management, as well as for market intelligence.
“Tobar ZVS’ commitment to Kira will help the firm execute on its vision of innovating integral solutions that add value to its clients. By integrating Kira into its transactional practice, Tobar ZVS will be able to devote more time towards covering critical angles of risk,” said Kennan Samman, Vice President of Global Product Sales at Litera. “We look forward to seeing what the firm accomplishes during its journey towards leveraging advanced tools in legal practice.”
Tobar ZVS’ service delivery approach and business model are underpinned by a cutting-edge digital platform, which integrates workflow automation, legal project management, contract automation, artificial intelligence, a robust document management system, AES-256 compliant, and banking grade information security features.
About Litera
Litera has been at the forefront of legal technology for 25+ years. As a global leader in workflow, AI-powered due diligence review and analysis, collaboration, and data management solutions, Litera provides legal teams with streamlined technology for creating, analyzing, and managing their documents, deals, cases, and data. Litera’s solutions help law firms and corporate legal teams worldwide work more efficiently, accurately, and competitively to provide their clients with usable and actionable information. For more information about Litera, visit litera.com.
Tobar ZVS had the pleasure of contributing to the latest edition of the Project Finance Guide 2021 with Chambers & Partners Global Practice Guides.
In this guide practitioners from 19 jurisdictions provide the latest legal information on public-private partnership (PPP) transactions, guarantees and security, judgments of foreign courts, foreign investment, structuring and documentation considerations, bankruptcy and insolvency, insurances, tax, and project and financing agreements.
Tobar ZVS contributed with the Ecuador commentary written by our team Bernardo Tobar, Cesar Zumarraga, Alvaro Sevilla and Juan Fernando Larrea.
PDF: Chambers Project finance ECUADOR
