Our history

Founded in 1994 by Alejandro Fernández de Araoz and Pedro Rueda, Araoz & Rueda, currently at Paseo de la Castellana 164, is a leading Spanish independent firm with broad-based corporate and commercial practice and particular expertise and market recognition in M&A and Private Equity.

Our firm had its first corporate domicile at Paseo de la Castellana, 53, where we stayed until 1996, year in which we moved to bigger offices at Paseo de la Castellana, 15.

In 1996 Francisco Aldavero joined the firm as a partner. In January 1997, a fourth partner, Clifford J Hendel, joined the firm and one year later Alberto Baeza arrived as a partner to lead the tax department.

Coinciding with the sixth anniversary of our foundation, on January 24, 2000, we expanded our offices at Paseo de la Castellana, 15 joining them to an adjacent office at Fernando el Santo, 25.

Our firm kept on growing, which implied that our offices at Paseo de la Castellana and Fernando el Santo, 25 were again too small. Thus, on November 29, 2002, we moved again to our current offices at Paseo de la Castellana, 164.

In January 2005 Alfonso Suárez - until then an important external collaborator and friend of our firm - joined us as a partner to lead the labour department. Furthermore, and at the same time, two associates were promoted to partners: Lourdes Ayala and Ainhoa Veiga. In January 2007, another associate, Francisco Solchaga, was promoted to partner, and in February 2007 Ignacio Trillo joined us as a partner to lead the banking and finance department. More recently, in January 2009, Álvaro de la Vía, associate of the firm, was promoted to partner of the tax department. 

We would like to take the opportunity to thank those who, since the foundation of this firm, have collaborated and/or keep on collaborating with their work, effort, dedication and illusion to make of Araoz & Rueda a firm with a well-known prestige and reputation within the legal sector. Especially, we would like to thank to the lawyers who, with their energetic youth, have been giving us renewed strengths every day. Without you, it would have been impossible to make this project come true. We would like to also thank the silent and never enough appreciated work of our secretaries and receptionists: thank you for your contribution and your patience when bearing us. Finally, our gratitude to the responsible people in the accounting, administration, library and documentation, knowledge management (KM) and marketing departments for their interest and efforts in contributing to the success of our firm.