From grain to gas: How foreign investment in Argentina is reshaping legal demand

The Milei administration has revolutionised the Argentinian economy to encourage foreign investment. The oil and gas industry is set to be a big winner, potentially overtaking agriculture as the country’s largest export. However, legal firms must also pivot, or risk losing out to better resourced competitors. 

In 2023, Argentina stood at a political crossroads. On one side, to maintain the 20-year status quo and continue with the incumbent administration’s heavy state intervention and strict capital controls. 

The alternative, Javier Milei, was an outsider economist promising political disruption and pro-market reforms. A man who won the election (and recent mid-terms) with his promise to “attack the system with a chainsaw”. 

Until recently, the country has experienced persistent economic and financial instability, which meant that legal work required in the oil and gas sector decreased both in volume and sophistication. For twenty years, capital markets were tightly controlled, limiting foreign investment in Argentina and requiring profit repatriation for domestic reinvestment.  

At the heart of Kirchnerism (named after the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) was a policy that prevented foreign and domestic companies from expatriating profits. Any money made in Argentina had to stay in Argentina.   

In response to these controls, long-term foreign investment shrank. The environment appealed chiefly to short-term, high-risk investors from countries like China and India.  As a result, there was very limited large-scale, corporate M&A or project finance activity anywhere in Argentina. 

During this period, the legal sector was dominated by exits, divestment, bankruptcy and restructurings. Most firms adjusted their specialisms to accommodate these demands.

As Milei began implementing his reforms, investor sentiment began to shift, and "fun mandates” – a term Argentinian lawyers use to refer to sophisticated and challenging work –  re-entered the market. 

Chairman, Legal Services Provider, Argentina

The sudden re‑emergence of sophisticated transactional work exposes a capability gap within Argentina’s legal market. Lawyers and firms now need to have complex, cross‑border, multi‑practice specialisations to meet the demands of a changing economic landscape. 

While many industries stalled in recent decades, oil and gas was the one partial exception due to its strategic importance. There has long been a political consensus within Argentina not to “kill the golden goose,” allowing the oil and gas industry to function largely unimpeded. 

That’s not to say the industry remained unchanged. Historically, large investments have been sourced from China, often under less favourable business conditions. Under Milei, more investment is being sought from US and European capital. To secure funding requires greater transparency, higher efficiency and stronger corporate governance to meet regulatory demands. 

After decades of limited growth, these changes are reaping rewards as Argentina is seeing significant growth in oil and LNG exports.

Much of the energy industry evolution is currently focused on the Vaca Muerta formation located in the Neuquén province. Attracting billions of dollars of investment, this is a massive shale project to unlock approximately 16 billion barrels of hydrocarbons. Home to three major LNG projects, Vaca Muerta has become the site of project finance deals on an unprecedented scale.  

Perhaps more importantly, the boom is redefining what legal clients need – and which firms can deliver against those requirements. 

Oil & Gas Partner, Argentinian Law Firm 

For two decades, legal work was overwhelmingly based on regulatory compliance. Clients were seeking advice to regulatory questions, like “Can we do this?” and “Is this permitted?” During that period, many legal firms lost their ability to complete complex trade deals. 

But in less than three years, Argentina’s legal market has shifted from a regulatory era to a transactional one. Now clients demand full-service, multi-disciplinary teams who offer the full complement of deal-completing skills. Clients are seeking one company who can assist with complex M&A, cross‑border structuring, joint ventures, sophisticated tax issues, project finance and labour/regulatory integration.

International M&A Partner, UK Law Firm

The reality is that not all Argentinian law firms are ready or able to deliver on these demands. Indeed, only a handful of firms have been able to secure all major LNG and Vaca Muerta mandates in 2025. 

What is their secret? These legal industry leaders have invested heavily to build deep, multi-specialist benches. They have worked to foster strong tax and finance teams and expanded their project finance capabilities. All demonstrate exceptional English-language skills, allowing them to deliver a strong cross-border capacity.  

Other firms risk falling behind by allowing their transaction experience to atrophy or retire. This could see them being left with lower-stakes matters and tasks like drafting contracts and resolving regulatory queries, while better resourced firms win the bigger deals. There is also an increased risk that these tasks will be automated using AI, further reducing competitive capabilities.

For the past ten years, Argentinian legal firms have offered broadly similar services in a market dominated by low complexity matters. However, this has changed almost overnight. 

Now, complex mandates and customer demands reveal capability gaps instantly – and these differences will inform and be reflected in Chambers’ rankings. The emergence of multi-million-dollar energy deals allows strong benches to shine through. 

At the same time, firms lacking depth are exposed – and are being left behind.

The new legal framework has created a wealth of new opportunities in the Argentina energy sector. However, market demands have changed significantly as foreign investment floods into the country. 

It’s worth noting that during the Kirchnerism era, many top lawyers in Argentina left firms to join in-house departments, especially in the oil and gas sector. In-house teams are highly skilled in this industry, so when they do feel the need to reach out to external firms, they are expecting top-notch advice. 

Law firms must develop deep, multi-disciplinary teams that can cover the breadth and complexity of multi-national deals. Project finance, tax, M&A, joint-venture structuring and cross-border expertise are now table stakes to be considered for big-ticket work.

Without investment in deep, multi-disciplinary teams able to support and add value to a skilful in-house department, Argentina’s legal firms risk seeing their regulatory experience increasingly commoditised. This could mean losing major clients and being relegated to low-fee engagements, or seeing routine tasks outsourced to AI automation. 

For the energy sector, continued investment will have significant effects; LNG and shale oil could quickly surpass agriculture as Argentina’s top export sector. To make this happen, the industry will require significant spend to implement and upgrade infrastructure. And as increasingly globalist policies play out, Western investment will play a key role in funding sector growth.

Milei’s reforms have unlocked foreign investment, transforming Argentina’s economy and spotlighting the oil and gas sector as a major growth driver. 

Chambers’ rankings can help you find excellent law firms and individual lawyers specialising in the oil and gas industry.  

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