The powerhouse compliance and investigations practice at Aguilar Castillo Love remains a market leader, leveraging the bench strength of nine offices throughout the region to advise public figures (including former Costa Rican president Carlos Alvarado Quesada), NGOs and such major household names as AstraZeneca, DHL and Hewlett Packard, across the pharmaceuticals, telecoms, energy, tech, medical devices, food, logistics, construction, education and tourism sectors. The team’s comprehensive  offering covers matters involving anti-money laundering, compliance investigations, anti-bribery and corruption investigations, risk management and corporate defence strategy. The team is headed by experienced criminal litigator Rodolfo Brenes Vargas and Tatiana Rojas Hernández, the president of the Costa Rican Chapter of the World Compliance Association, who assists clients with free trade zone matters. Key support is provided by senior associate Sergio Herra Rodríguez, a specialist in white-collar crime cases.

The team at BLP remains a leader in the market, bringing strength to creating, implementing and monitoring compliance programmes and risk management strategies for domestic and household-name multinational corporates such as Microsoft, Colgate-Palmolive, Pfizer and Samsung, across such sectors as tech, electronics, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, construction and hospitality. The group’s comprehensive service covers matters ranging from anti-money laundering, health and safety, consumer protection and antitrust to corporate human rights, data privacy, corporate regulatory frameworks and ESG. The practice is led by Juan Carlos Tristán, an expert in internal investigations, training, and the drafting and implementation of ethics and anti-corruption programmes, along with Uri Weinstok, a specialist in conducting audits and compliance programmes. Other key figures include Andrés López, who brings AML expertise; experienced litigator and special counsel Alejandro Rojas; and San José office director and data privacy expert León Weinstok.

The San José office of Arias leverages regional strength and the experience of its team to design programmes to address national and international compliance regulations for such major multinational corporates as Essity and 3M, across the pharmaceuticals, agriculture, healthcare, professional services and consumer goods sectors. The group’s full offering covers matters ranging from risk identification and status analysis to anti-money laundering and anti-corruption policies, the preparation and drafting of regulatory compliance policies, and the preparation of monitoring, auditing and periodic compliance assessments. The practice is headed by regional managing partner Vicente Lines, who draws on experience as a regulatory counsel to competitive carriers and infrastructure developers in the telecoms sector, and senior counsel German Rojas, who co-leads the firm’s dispute resolution practice.

The Costa Rican compliance team at Dentons co-ordinates with offices in Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala to design risk assessment strategies and corporate governance programmes for such household-name multinationals as Microsoft, Amazon and LL Bean, across such sectors as tech, apparel, food, energy, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and telecoms. The group’s full service covers assistance with internal investigations, due diligence, data protection and data privacy, training, and anti-corruption and anti-money laundering strategies. The team is led by practice area expert Tatiana Reuben, who brings more than 20 years of experience to compliance matters related to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act, antitrust laws, export control, and trade and Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions. Key support is provided by associates Josué Blen, who previously served as legal adviser to the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation of Costa Rica, and Ricardo Mora, a specialist in tax and data protection compliance.