The Argentinean legal market is significantly larger than most in
South America and, as such, features a large pool of firms that handle
corporate and financial matters. There are a number of large branches of
international firms in the country in addition to the many local firms
that do transactional work. All of the firms that would be considered
for large investments, cross-border transactions, or any kind of
sophisticated financial work have lawyers who are at least bilingual
(most firms have lawyers who speak several languages collectively) and
have studied or practiced abroad. Additionally, nearly every financial
firm in the country is based in its capital and financial centre, Buenos
Aires.
Due to the size and structure of both the legal market and the
economy, there is a fair amount of specialisation among the country's
financial firms. There are firms that focus on a single type of
transaction or financial sector, although there are few, if any, firms
that only do one type of work.
Lawyers in Argentina have been dealing with regional and foreign
clients for decades, so the risk of finding a firm that cannot handle an
international transaction is very low. Legal services in Argentina can
be more expensive than in other countries in the region, but the
sophisticated nature of both the attorneys and the work they are
accustomed to doing can easily be worth the added expenditure.