Virtú Atelier Legal

Managing and Founding Partner: Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak

Partners: Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak, Marcia Arosemena de Paz Rodríguez and Marelissa Quintero de Stanziola

Number of associates: 2

KEY SERVICES AND CONTACTS

• Corporate: Mergers & Acquisitions; Corporate Governance Structure for Commercial Companies; Organization and Reorganization of Corporate Structures, Foundations and Trusts. | Contact: Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak ([email protected]); Marcia Arosemena ([email protected])
• Banking & Capital Markets: Structuring both national and international complex financing transactions, such as loans or credit lines, syndicated structures, project finance, interim construction financing, public and private issuances of bonds and/or stocks, among other financial endeavors; Licenses, registrations, and authorizations from financial regulators, as well as the registration of securities and investment companies;Securitizations, public finance, regulatory advice, and the auditing and consultation of compliance, prevention, and corporate governance for regulated companies; regulatory processes within the punitive administrative regime and handle administrative procedures with financial regulators.| Contact: Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak ([email protected]); Marelissa Quintero de Stanziola ([email protected])
• Projects & Infrastructure: Legal advice on infrastructure issues covers the entire project cycle, starting from the structuring of service specifications and contracts, management of the contractor selection process, proposal presentation, contract management, execution, acquisition, financing, to the liquidation of the state or private contract, concessions, public-private partnerships, among others. | Contact: Marcia Arosemena ([email protected]); Lourdes Martínez ([email protected])
• Real Estate and Tourism: Legal advice covers the initial planning strategy, land acquisition, project finance, construction, selling, leasing, permits, construction and development (through horizontal property or other regimes), including tourism-related projects.| Contact: Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak ([email protected]); Marcia Arosemena ([email protected]); Lourdes Martínez ([email protected]).

Virtù Atelier Legal (“Virtù”) is a leading Panamanian boutique law firm established in 2019, dedicated to providing comprehensive, innovative legal advisory services. The firm, led by three partners, specializes in key areas such as Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, and Projects & Infrastructure. With a team of highly experienced lawyers, boasting over 25 years of recognized expertise, Virtù has a proven track record of advising on complex financial transactions, capital market operations, and some of the most emblematic infrastructure projects in Panama. The firm’s extensive experience allows it to support both local and international clients across a wide range of sectors, including corporate finance, infrastructure, real estate, tourism projects, and family-owned businesses, ensuring they receive top-tier legal guidance

Virtù' team has outstandingly dealt with management and has broad expertise setting up a wide range of structures. Some of the members of this team have served for The Superintendence of Banks of Panama and The Superintendence of the Security Market of Panama. What’s more, they are members of several boards of directors of the renowned banking institutions, broker houses, real estate investment funds, among others. All that experience allows the firm to provide superior legal advice to some of the main financial players, in the largest and most complex transactions. Regarding the setting up of structures, the firm encompasses syndicated and bilateral, secured and unsecured, and domestic and cross-border financing. Up to date, the firm has structured over 1 billion in public securities issuances, also multimillionaire representation to multiple banking and financial institutions in the structuring of complex corporate securities revolving programs.

Besides, the firm is a permanent institutional legal advisor for well-recognized banks and family offices in Panama on their daily operations. Virtù's daily counselling deals with financial transactions, corporate governance, compliance, and regulatory matters.

In addition, our Project and Infrastructure Department, which deals with infrastructure matters, represents several local and international organizations. Thus, the firm works with private companies, public entities, international organizations, governments, and multilateral banks on institutional reform, project development and infrastructure, banking and finance, among others. Virtù oversees the entire project lifecycle, from the initial structuring of bidding documents and contracts, through the management of contractor selection, proposal submission, and contract administration, to the execution, procurement, financing, and final liquidation of both public and private contracts, including concessions and public-private partnerships, processes under Law 22 of 2006, BID regulations, and processes under CABEI regulations.

Virtù advises private entities in loan agreements, as well as local and International financial entities, investment funds on banking and markets regulations, their scope and application to the entire banking and security sector and ensure their compliance.

Representative clients: Banco General (and subsidiaries), BG Valores, Prival Bank, Prival Securities, Invertis Securities, Global Bank, Euroclear, Unibank, Banesco, Banco Aliado, Grupo Verde Azul, Metro de Panama, Latinex, Nippon Koei, Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF), Transeq, AYESA Panama, Secretaria Nacional de Asociaciones Público-Privadas.

Languages: English and Spanish.