The Lawyer Network is the next generation for finding a specialist lawyer for your global business requirements. When selecting a law firm, most businesses and their directors will have knowledge of qualified law firms to work with in their domestic markets, but will have little or no knowledge of the best firms to work with outside of their own chosen jurisdiction. The Lawyer Network alleviates this problem. The user is therefore provided with a clear and informative recommendation in each jurisdiction and sector. This structure ensures each member builds stronger and ultimately more rewarding relationships, as membership is based around their core area of interest and expertise
We don’t believe one firm or individual can profess to offer the best advice or the most knowledge across all sectors or fields of advice, within any given country Consequently, we aim to focus on practice area expertise and the jurisdiction: by bringing the best of each sector and location to the client. We are the only global network of this type.
The Lawyer Network Annual Awards
We are judged by the quality of our award winners; therefore, we select only the highest quality advisers. This doesn’t necessarily mean the largest or top-ranked firm by generic ranking websites, but those who have the necessary skills to assist our readers with their own specific requirements. Our winners range from Magic Circle firms in each country, to boutique practitioners specialising in niche areas of law.
The Annual Awards commemorates those who have been successful over the past 12 months and have shown excellence, not only in expertise, but in service. As part of our process, we received thousands of nominations through our website and undertook detailed investigations through our independent research and editorial teams. We then shortlisted up to five potential winners in each category, and an independent award panel in each country decided on the eventual winner for each specialism.
The following pages feature profiles and listings, detailing our winners from all over the world. Their entries are organised by region, country and practice area for your ease of navigation.
Europe Winners
According to Eurostat's preliminary flash estimate, GDP grew by 0.3% in the EU and by 0.1% in the euro area in the first quarter of 2023. Leading indicators suggest continued growth in the second quarter.
The European economy has managed to contain the adverse impact of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, weathering the energy crisis thanks to a rapid diversification of supply and a sizeable fall in gas consumption. Markedly lower energy prices are working their way through the economy, reducing firms' production costs. Consumers are also seeing their energy bills fall, although private consumption is set to remain subdued as wage growth lags inflation.
As inflation remains high, financing conditions are set to tighten further. Though the ECB and other EU central banks are expected to be nearing the end of the interest rate hiking cycle, the recent turbulence in the financial sector is likely to add pressure to the cost and ease of accessing credit, slowing down investment growth and hitting – in particular – residential investment.
After peaking in 2022, headline inflation continued to decline in the first quarter of 2023 amid a sharp deceleration of energy prices. Core inflation (headline inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food) is, however, proving more persistent. In March, it reached an historic high of 7.6%, but is projected to decline gradually over the forecast horizon as profit margins absorb higher wage pressures and financing conditions tighten. The April flash harmonised index of consumer prices estimate for the euro area, released after the cutoff date of this forecast, shows a marginal decline in the rate of core inflation, which suggests that it might have peaked in the first quarter, as projected. On an annual basis, core inflation in the euro area in 2023 is set to average 6.1%, before falling to 3.2% in 2024, remaining above headline inflation in both forecast years.
A record-strong labour market is bolstering the resilience of the EU economy. The EU unemployment rate hit a new record low of 6.0% in March 2023, and participation and employment rates are at record highs.
The EU labour market is expected to react only mildly to the slower pace of economic expansion. Employment growth is forecast at 0.5% this year, before edging down to 0.4% in 2024. The unemployment rate is projected to remain just above 6%. Wage growth has picked up since early 2022 but has so far remained well below inflation. More sustained wage increases are expected on the back of persistent tightness of labour markets, strong increases in minimum wages in several countries and, more generally, pressure from workers to recoup lost purchasing power.
Despite the introduction of support measures to mitigate the impact of high energy prices, strong nominal growth and the unwinding of residual pandemic-related measures led the EU aggregate government deficit in 2022 to fall further to 3.4% of GDP. In 2023, and more markedly in 2024, falling energy prices should allow governments to phase out energy support measures, driving further deficit reductions, to 3.1% and 2.4% of GDP respectively. The EU aggregate debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to decline steadily to below 83% in 2024 (90% in the euro area), which is still above the prepandemic levels. There is a large heterogeneity of fiscal trajectories across Member States.
While inflation can support the improvement in public finances in the short term, this effect is bound to dissipate over time as debt repayment costs increase and public expenditures are progressively adjusted to the higher price level.
More persistent core inflation could continue restraining the purchasing power of households and force a stronger response of monetary policy, with broad macrofinancial ramifications. Moreover, renewed episodes of financial stress could lead to a further surge in risk aversion, prompting a more pronounced tightening of lending standards than assumed in this forecast.
An expansionary fiscal policy stance would fuel inflation further, leaning against monetary policy action.
In addition, new challenges may arise for the global economy following the banking sector turmoil or related to wider geopolitical tensions. On the positive side, more benign developments in energy prices would lead to a faster decline in headline inflation, with positive spillovers on domestic demand. Finally, there is persistent uncertainty stemming from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
On the 17th and 18th of July, the European Union and the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean states (CELAC) held their 3rd Summit in Brussels. The meeting gathered Heads of State and Government of the EU Member States and of the 33 CELAC states for the first time in eight years.
The series of meetings started with an EU-LAC Business Round Table, where Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented the EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA). It includes more than 135 projects to make the fair green and digital transition a reality on both sides of the Atlantic, and revolves around four pillars: a fair green transition, an inclusive digital transformation, human development and health resilience and vaccines.
On this occasion, the President announced that Team Europe committed more than €45 billion to support the reinforced partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean until 2027. The Summit further strengthened the partnership between the EU and the CELAC countries on shared priorities, such as the digital and green transitions, the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, health, food security, migration, security and governance or the fight against transnational crime.
During the Summit, the EU stepped up its energy cooperation with Argentina and Uruguay with the signature of two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). The former sets out key areas of cooperation, including renewable energy, hydrogen, methane emissions abatement and stresses the need to provide a socially just energy transition. The latter highlights renewable energy, energy efficiency and renewable hydrogen as key areas of cooperation as both the EU and Uruguay strive to reach climate neutrality by 2050.
As part of the EU's Global Gateway strategy, during the EU-CELAC Summit, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Banco Santander signed a €300 million loan to support the installation of a series of small-scale, selfconsumption solar photovoltaic plants in Brazil. Similarly, the EIB also announced a €200 million loan to Banco del Estado de Chile to finance new houses with better energy efficiency standards and a €100 million loan to support Chile's growing renewable hydrogen industry.
The EU also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chile on establishing a partnership on sustainable raw materials value chains, which will contribute to Europe's security of supply while creating jobs and growth in Chile.
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The Americas Winners
In a recent report, ECLAC calls on countries to improve their policy design to take advantage of the contribution that FDI can make to the energy transition and to the region’s sustainable productive development.
In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean received $224.579 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), a figure that is 55.2% above 2021 levels and marks the highest value on record, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) revealed.
This result is mainly attributable to the increase in FDI in some countries, particularly in Brazil; to growth in all the components of FDI, especially earnings reinvestment; and to the increase in FDI in the services sector. This dynamic is consistent with the post-pandemic recovery, and it is unclear whether it will stay at similar levels in 2023, according to the annual report, “Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2023”.
FDI inflows to Latin American and Caribbean countries had not topped $200 billion dollars since 2013. These flows also increased as a share of regional GDP in 2022, accounting for 4.0%, the document stated.
“The challenge of attracting and retaining Foreign Direct Investment that contributes effectively to the region’s sustainable and inclusive productive development is more relevant than ever. There are new opportunities in an era of reconfiguration of global value chains and geographic relocation of production in the face of a changing globalisation,” noted ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, who presented the study’s main conclusions during a press conference in Santiago, Chile.
The senior United Nations official emphasised that “the challenge is not only to attract and retain, but also to maximise FDI’s contribution to development –and to this end, countries must focus on postestablishment, productive development policies, which include the promotion of productive linkages, policies for adding value and moving up value chains, for human resources development, infrastructure and logistics, and building local capacities.”
The global FDI scenario in 2022 was heterogeneous, ECLAC indicates. While these flows grew in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in other regions of the world, they decreased in the US and in some EU countries. Overall, global FDI inflows shrank by 12% versus 2021, totalling $1.29 trillion dollars.
According to the report, nearly all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean received more FDI in 2022. Leading the list were Brazil (which received 41% of the regional total and ranks as the No. 5 destination for global FDI), followed by Mexico (17%), Chile (9%), Colombia (8%), Argentina (7%) and Peru (5%).
Costa Rica was the main FDI recipient in Central America. In Guatemala, these flows showed a significant decline due to an extraordinary value recorded in 2021, but they returned to their historical average.
There was also a positive change in FDI inflows to the Caribbean, predominantly fuelled by greater investment in the Dominican Republic, which was the second-largest recipient country after Guyana.
At a regional level, 54% of FDI went into the services sector, although both the manufacturing and natural resources sectors also rebounded. Financial services; electricity, natural gas and water; information and communications; as well as transportation-related services had the largest share of investments in the services sector as a whole.
The US (38% of the total) and the EU (17%, excluding the Netherlands and Luxembourg) were the main investors in the region, while FDI coming from countries within the Latin America and Caribbean region experienced a significant increase, rising from 9% to 14% of the total.
In fact, the document points to a more than 80% increase in FDI from Latin America and the Caribbean to destinations both inside and outside the region. In 2022, the amount invested abroad by transnational Latin American companies, known as translatinas, reached an historic high: $74.677 billion dollars –which is the highest figure recorded since this series began to be compiled in the 1990s.
Furthermore, the amount of FDI project announcements in Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 93% in 2022, totalling nearly $100 billion dollars. For the first time since 2010, the hydrocarbons sector (coal, oil and gas) led the announcements, with 24% of the total, followed by the automotive sector (13%) and renewable energies (11%).
The study also includes two chapters that analyse FDI trends in non-renewable and renewable energies in the context of the energy transition and fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, they address the key role of governments in this area, identifying challenges and opportunities in addition to making policy recommendations.
The energy transition is identified by ECLAC as one of the sectors driving economic growth that can become a major engine for the region’s productive transformation, which means that countries and their territories should prioritise it within their productive development policies and agendas.
The percentage of installed capacity of renewable energy in Latin America and the Caribbean is higher than the global average, and the electrical power generation matrix is among the cleanest in the world. Therefore, if the region were to increase its supply of renewable energy, it could become a place of origin for the production of goods that are being produced today in countries with comparatively less clean matrixes. FDI can play a critical role in accelerating the energy transition, facilitating technology transfer and enabling emerging technologies.
Governments must lead the coordination of strategies for the energy transition’s success in the region, the Commission underscores. “They are responsible for making sure that non-renewable energy activities are reduced radically, as required by the climate commitments, while managing to mitigate their negative effects and their economic and social costs, especially in terms of investments, employment and income. One of their central functions is to develop long-term policies that promote investments in renewable energy sources, so that the transition is rapid and secure, and does not leave the region lagging behind in a context in which energy from clean sources is a factor of competition,” the study states.
Nonetheless, ECLAC also warns that in this process, consideration must be given to the importance that the non-renewable energy sector still has for some countries in the region – especially in terms of generating revenue to address social demands, those related to productive development and to energy security.
Beyond the challenges of the energy transition, the report insists that Latin American and Caribbean countries must improve the design of policies to attract investment and strengthen their institutional capacities in this area. It is essential that progress be made on articulating efforts to attract FDI with countries’ and territories’ productive development strategies, and that FDI begin to be used with greater directionality as a strategic tool for furthering sustainable productive development processes.
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Asia & Oceania Winners
South Asia’s growth prospects have weakened due to tightening financial conditions, with large downside risks in most countries given limited fiscal space and depleting reserves, says the World Bank in its twice-ayear regional update. The report stresses the need to roll back market distortions introduced during the pandemic and address debilitating socioeconomic divides that constrain South Asia’s potential.
The latest South Asia Economic Focus, “Expanding Opportunities: Toward Inclusive Growth”, projects regional growth to an average 5.6% in 2023, a slight downward revision from the October 2022 forecast. Growth is expected to remain moderate at 5.9% in 2024, following an initial post-pandemic recovery of 8.2% in 2021.
South Asia’s outlook is shaped by a combination of good and bad news in the global economy. Lower commodity prices, a strong recovery in the services sector and reduced disruptions in value chains are aiding South Asia’s recovery, but rising interest rates and uncertainty in financial markets are putting downward pressure on the region’s economies.
“South Asia’s economies have been scarred by a combination of extreme shocks over the past three years, and the recovery remains incomplete,” said Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia.
“Countries should use the opportunity of lower energy prices and improving trade balances to move away from ad hoc measures, such as fuel subsidies and import restrictions implemented to address these shocks, and focus on reforms needed to build resilience and boost medium-term growth.”
All countries in the region except Bhutan have downgraded their forecasts. In India, South Asia’s largest economy, high borrowing costs and slower income growth are expected to dampen consumption and lower growth to 6.3% in FY2023/24. Growth in Pakistan – which is still reeling from the impacts of last year’s catastrophic floods and facing supply chain disruptions, deteriorating investor confidence as well as higher borrowing and input costs – is projected to drop to 0.4% this year, assuming agreement on an IMF programme is reached. In Sri Lanka, GDP is expected to contract by 4.3% this year, reflecting the lasting impact of the macro-debt crisis, with future growth prospects –following recent IMF programme approval – heavily dependent on debt restructuring and structural reforms. The resumption of tourism and migration has supported growth in the Maldives and Nepal. But high external debt and tightened global financial conditions pose risks to the Maldives’ fiscal and external accounts, and in Nepal, external shocks, domestic import restrictions and monetary tightening are expected to hamper growth.
Inflation in South Asia is set to fall to 8.9% this year, and to below 7% in 2024. However, weaker currencies and delayed domestic price adjustments are contributing to a slower than anticipated decline in inflation. Elevated global and domestic food prices are contributing to greater food insecurity for South Asia’s poor, who spend a larger share of income on food.
To go from recovery to sustained growth, South Asia needs to ensure economic development is inclusive. The region has among the world’s highest inequality of opportunity. Between 40 and 60% of total inequality in South Asia is driven by circumstances out of an individual’s control, such as place of birth, family background, caste, ethnicity and gender.
Intergenerational mobility is also among the world’s lowest. Data highlighted in the report shows that fewer than 9% of individuals whose parents have low levels of education reach education levels of the upper 25%. Such disparities lead to differences in access to jobs, earnings, consumption and welfare, and to calls for redistributive policies.
“South Asia’s stark socioeconomic divides are both unfair and inefficient. They keep talented individuals from contributing to society, reduce incentives to invest in human capital and derail long-term economic growth,” said Hans Timmer, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia. “Addressing these structural issues is vital to ensuring the region can achieve its full potential.”
India’s growth continues to be resilient despite some signs of moderation in growth, says the World Bank in its latest India Development Update, the World Bank India’s biannual flagship publication.
The Update notes that although significant challenges remain in the global environment, India was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The overall growth remains robust and is estimated to be 6.9% for the full year, with real GDP growing 7.7% year-on-year during the first three quarters of fiscal year 2022/23. There were some signs of moderation in the second half of FY 22/23. Growth was underpinned by strong investment activity bolstered by the government’s capex push and buoyant private consumption,
particularly among higher income earners. Inflation remained high, averaging around 6.7% in FY22/23, but the current-account deficit narrowed in Q3 on the back of strong growth in service exports and easing global commodity prices.
The World Bank has revised its FY23/24 GDP forecast to 6.3% from 6.6% (December 2022). Growth is expected to be constrained by slower consumption growth and challenging external conditions. Rising borrowing costs and slower income growth will weigh on private consumption growth, and government consumption is projected to grow at a slower pace due to the withdrawal of pandemic-related fiscal support measures.
“The Indian economy continues to show strong resilience to external shocks,” said Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank’s Country Director in India. “Notwithstanding external pressures, India’s service exports have continued to increase, and the currentaccount deficit is narrowing.”
Although headline inflation is elevated, it is projected to decline to an average of 5.2% in FY23/24, amid easing global commodity prices and some moderation in domestic demand. The Reserve Bank of India has withdrawn accommodative measures to rein in inflation by hiking the policy interest rate. India’s financial sector also remains strong, buoyed by improvements in asset quality and robust private-sector credit growth.
The central government is likely to meet its fiscal deficit target of 5.9% of GDP in FY23/24, and combined with consolidation in state government deficits, the general government deficit is also projected to decline. As a result, the debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to stabilise. On the external front, the current account deficit is projected to narrow to 2.1% of GDP from an estimated 3% in FY22/23 on the back of robust service exports and a narrowing merchandise trade deficit.
“Spillovers from recent developments in financial markets in the US and Europe pose a risk to short-term investment flows to emerging markets, including India,” noted Dhruv Sharma, Senior Economist, World Bank, and lead author of the report. “But Indian banks remain well capitalised.”
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Africa & the Middle East Winners
Economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to grow at a slower pace in 2023, as double-digit food inflation adds pressure on poorer households and the impact of food insecurity can span generations, according to a recent economic update from the World Bank.
Titled “Altered Destinies: The Long-Term Effects of Rising Prices and Food Insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa,” the report forecasts MENA’s GDP will slow to 3.0% in 2023, from 5.8% in 2022. Oil exporters, who benefited from a windfall in 2022, will experience slower growth, but a large gap remains between high-income countries and the rest of the region. Real GDP per capita growth, a better proxy for living standards, is expected to slow to 1.6% in 2023 from 4.4% in 2022.
Inflation in the region rose dramatically in 2022, especially in countries that experienced currency depreciations. The report focuses specifically on the impact of food price inflation on food insecurity, finding that eight out of 16 countries suffered from doubledigit food price inflation or higher – affecting poorer households the most, as they spend more of their budgets on food than those better off.
The twice-yearly report found that average year-on-year food inflation across 16 MENA economies between March and December 2022 was 29%. This was higher than headline inflation, which rose on average to 19.4% year-on-year during that period, compared to 14.8% between October 2021 and February 2022, the month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Across all four MENA subgroups covered in the report – developing oil importers, developing oil exporters, conflict countries and the GCC – inflation accounts for 24% to 33% of 2023’s forecast food insecurity.
According to the report, the increase in food prices from March–June 2022 may have increased the risk of childhood stunting by 17%–24% in developing countries in MENA, which translates to around 200,000 to 285,000 newborns who are at risk of stunting. More generally, research indicates that child malnutrition leads to poor performance in school, lower incomes as well as poorer health.
The report suggests policy tools that could help alleviate food insecurity before it escalates into a full-blown crisis, including targeted cash and in-kind transfers that could be introduced immediately to stem acute food insecurity. Mothers, who play a vital role both in utero and in early childhood, would benefit from improved parental leave, childcare and medical care.
Improved and more current data on the state of childhood health and nutrition are required, along with better access to administrative information that would help target priorities and reach vulnerable populations more easily. Making food systems more resilient and strengthening supply chains, especially in the face of climate and future market shocks, is essential.
The Addis-Djibouti corridor, a vital trade route and a lifeline for Ethiopia’s 120 million people, will get a significant upgrade thanks to the newly approved Horn of Africa Initiative’s Regional Economic Corridor Project. The project, endowed with a $730 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA), aims to improve regional connectivity and logistics efficiency in Ethiopia along this key trade route connecting landlocked Ethiopia to the port of Djibouti.
More than 95% of Ethiopia’s import-export trade (by volume) uses the Addis-Djibouti corridor. The project aims to upgrade the road to Djibouti, including the Mieso-Dire Dawa section, which is currently in poor condition and unsuitable for growing truck traffic. This section forces road users to take a longer route through Mille, adding 146 kilometers to their journey. Upgrading the Mieso-Dire Dawa section to a four-lane expressway will reduce transport time, enhance road safety, save fuel and maintenance costs as well as reducing pollution. This upgrade is crucial for Ethiopia’s economic growth and social development, as it will improve the efficiency and capacity of this crucial trade route.
A staff team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Tokhir Mirzoev, visited Amman, Jordan in May to discuss with the Iraqi authorities the recent economic developments and outlook, as well as policy plans in the period ahead.
Mr Mirzoev issued a statement saying: “The Iraqi economy’s growth momentum has slowed in recent months. After recovering to its pre-pandemic level last year, oil production is set to contract by 5% in 2023 owing to the OPEC+ production cut and outage of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The foreign exchange (FX) market volatility in the wake of tighter anti-money laundering / combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) on FX sales has adversely affected import-dependent non-oil sectors. Real non-oil GDP is estimated to have contracted by 9% (year-on-year) in the last quarter of 2022, negating its growth during the previous three quarters. With the FX market appearing to be stabilising,
helped by CBI’s actions, growth of real non-oil GDP is expected to resume and reach 3.7% in 2023.
After spiking to 7% in January, inflation has begun to moderate – reflecting lower international commodity prices as well as a 10% revaluation of the dinar –and is projected to average 5.6% in 2023.
“Favourable oil market conditions have supported Iraq’s fiscal and external positions, but structural imbalances continue to widen. In 2022, fiscal and external current account surpluses have reached 7.6 and 17.3% of GDP respectively on the back of record-high oil revenues. The CBI’s FX reserves rose to US$97 billion (11 months of imports), including US$16.3 billion (6% of GDP) in fiscal savings accumulated by the government. At the same time, a large fiscal expansion has widened the non-oil primary deficit from 52 to more than 68% of non-oil GDP in the course of 2022.
“An even bigger fiscal loosening envisaged in the draft 2023 budget law would widen the non-oil primary fiscal deficit further to 75% of non-oil GDP and bring the overall fiscal balance to a deficit of 6.5% of GDP. The combined effects of increased government spending, the exchange rate revaluation and reduced oil production would bring the fiscal break-even oil price to $96 per barrel.
“In the short run, implementation of the authorities’ fiscal plans could re-ignite inflation and FX market volatility. Over the medium term, continuation of current policies in the presence of substantial uncertainty about the future path of oil prices poses critical macroeconomic stability risks. Barring a large increase in oil prices, the current fiscal stance could lead to mounting deficits and intensifying financing pressures in the coming years.
“A significantly tighter fiscal policy is needed to strengthen resilience and reduce the government’s dependence on oil revenues while safeguarding critical social spending needs. Key priorities include diversifying fiscal revenues, reducing the oversized government wage bill and reforming the pension system to make it financially sound and more inclusive. While supporting the government’s plan to increase social assistance, the mission recommends stronger targeting to ensure that it is directed to those who are most vulnerable.”
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