Quevedo & Ponce

Managing Partner: Alfredo Gallegos Banderas
Senior Partner: Alejandro Ponce Martínez
Senior Partner Guayaquil Office: Monserrat Barreno Bravo
Senior Partner Cuenca Office: Santiago Ponce Rose
Senior Partner Miravalle Office: Alejandro Ponce Villacís
Senior Partner Tulcán Office: Galo Terán Varela
Number of partners: 25

Contacts:
Intellectual Property: Alejandro Ponce Martínez, Santiago Ponce Rose, Daniela Román
Corporate & Commercial: Alfredo Gallegos Banderas, Daniela Román, Monserrat Barreno
Insurance Reinsurance & Banking: Luis Ponce Palacios
Complex Litigation & Human Rights: María Isabel Zurita
Civil Law, Arbitration & General Litigation: Alejandro Ponce Martínez, Ernesto Guarderas, Maria Belén Merchán, Ricardo Hernández
Constitutional: María Isabel Zurita
Maritime Customs & Administrative: Monserrat Barreno, Alfredo Gallegos Banderas, Daniela Jácome
Taxation & Customs: Galo Terán Varela, Ricardo Hernández 
Competition: Juan Esteban Ponce Villacís
Mediation & Negotiation: Juan Esteban Ponce Villacís
Administrative Law: Ernesto Guarderas
Litigation: Santiago Ponce Rose, Ricardo Hernández
Environmental Law: Gaio Terán, Monserrat Barreno

Firm Overview:
This strong and efficient group maintains its leading edge in litigation and arbitration. With the firm’s offices in key cities, the team features on a wide range of contentious matters across Ecuador. The firm has been involved in important arbitration cases under UNCITRAL and ICSID rules; as well as in domestic arbitration. Members of the firm have consistently been appointed as arbitrators with impressive records on developing new ways to arbitrate according to the consent of the parties. Negotiation and mediation have been the means used to settle important cases. Quevedo & Ponce was founded in 1940 and has maintained its tradition of high quality of services with renewed techniques in complex litigation and actions against the government.

Main Areas Of Practice:
With its presence in the main cities of Ecuador and its constant activity and devotion against corruption for the maintenance of the rule of law, Quevedo & Ponce has offered broad support to its clients not only in litigation, arbitration, human rights, corporate structuring, mergers and acquisition, issuance of bonds to be placed abroad, intellectual property, insurance and reinsurance, and taxation, but also in fields of maritime and customs laws, with respect to the introduction and operation of chartered shipments for services in tourism mainly in the Galapagos Islands. Constitutional protection by the judges has been an area of constant debate before the courts, especially given the difficulty imposed in the implementation of new concepts such as the adversary principle and the orality in the proceedings and hearings. Quevedo & Ponce has been a leader in imposing new trends in these matters. In the field of intellectual property Quevedo & Ponce has obtained important decisions from the Supreme Court (now eliminated in Ecuador), the National Court of Justice and the Andean Court of Justice, which decisions constitute precedent and jurisprudence. Patents rights have been a matter of constant dispute with the government. The firm’s clients have been offered the best techniques to defend the patentability of inventions, mainly in the pharmaceutical field, and the validity of patents granted. Quevedo & Ponce obtained the first decision ever issued from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights protecting the right of property that was affected by the Republic of Ecuador through violation of due process of law. For the first time the Court awarded damages to the victim because of acts of confiscation of property. Additionally in another case related to gender discrimination within the armed forces, a successful verdict was obtained. The area of competition law has been covered by Quevedo & Ponce with deep analysis.