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102.3 million in 2024, 37 offices and a £200 million target by 2030: Écija’s rise amid AI and investors

by mercedes galán

The legal sector is experiencing a moment of accelerated transformation, driven by digitalization, artificial intelligence and the entry of external capital in some firms. In this context, Hugo Écija, founder and chairman of Écija Abogados, sets out his model: business structure with separation between capital, management and service provision, intensive adoption of technology and an internal culture oriented towards continuous adaptation.

“I started my firm at 26, and today I am 53. I have dedicated more than half of my life to this project, which has been vital, with vision and always evolving,” recalls Écija, who founded his firm in Madrid in 1997.

ORIGIN
With the start of the new century, Écija decided to structure the firm as a limited company, separating capital, management and service provision, and focused on then-emerging areas such as audiovisual law and intellectual property. “Lawyers were at once owners, managers and those who contributed capital. Everything was mixed. I came from doing an MBA, from working in the U.S., and I asked myself: why did lawyers have to do everything?” he explains.
That business approach, unusual in Spanish legal practice in the late 1990s, made a difference. “Innovation is not only technological: law firms are companies that must adapt to the social, cultural and technological environment. Those that do not, die. And the speed of adaptation today is vital,” he comments.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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The ASEAN+3 Economic Cooperation and Financial Stability Forum, or AMRO Forum, is a platform for regional and global exchange of knowledge and ideas on economic cooperation and financial stability.

In its fourth edition, AMRO will co-organize the forum with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Bank for International Settlements (BIS), with a common goal of achieving macroeconomic and financial resilience and stability for the region.

This year’s theme is Fragmentation to Resilience: Macro-financial Stability and Regional Integration in ASEAN+3. The ASEAN+3 region is faced with challenge of safeguarding financial stability and strengthening macro-financial resilience while sustaining long-term prosperity. Although ASEAN+3 has made substantial progress in economic and financial cooperation over recent decades, the current global transformation demands even higher degree of collective action to navigate the changing international order.

The forum will discuss the near-term risks and challenges to the region’s macro-financial stability and outlook, and present solutions and initiatives to promote its medium to long-term economic growth journey. There will be two sessions, comprising keynote speeches and panel discussions.

Join us online on November 25, 2025!

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