Administrative action frequently bears on economic or property interests: ownership, real estate, business activities, licences, valuations, expropriations, taxes or compensation. That reality explains the close connection between our public and administrative law practice and the firm's specialisation in property and contract law.
Public law calls for a command of the rule to be combined with a command of the procedure. An authorisation, a licence, a penalty, an expropriation or a planning measure may produce economic and property consequences of particular significance. We therefore approach each matter from its earliest stage, seeking to anticipate the risks and to build the client's legal position before the dispute reaches the courts. Where the controversy cannot be resolved through the administrative route, we take on its defence before the administrative courts.
The firm's litigation experience and our command of property law allow us to bring together within a single strategy the legal regime governing administrative action, its economic consequences and the defence of the affected interests before the courts.
Administrative law and defence before the administrative courts
We advise and defend our clients in administrative proceedings of very different kinds, including penalty, disciplinary, tax and cadastral proceedings, as well as in matters of authorisations and licences, grants and grant recovery, civil-service employment, “vía de hecho” (unlawful de facto administrative action) and administrative concessions.
Wherever possible, our involvement begins before the public authority adopts a final decision. We examine the background, the applicable rules and the consequences of each alternative; we prepare submissions, respond to formal requests and lodge the appropriate administrative appeals. Once the administrative route is exhausted, we take on the conduct of the administrative-court proceedings at their various instances.
Planning law and expropriation
Planning law is one of the most specialised areas of our public law practice. We advise on planning instruments and planning implementation, reparcelling and site infrastructure schemes, “juntas de compensación” (landowners' development associations) and other collaborating planning entities, planning agreements and the processing of licences and authorisations. We also act in proceedings for the protection of planning legality and planning enforcement, inspections, restoration orders, penalties and other administrative action capable of affecting the use, the transformation or the development potential of real estate.
In matters of compulsory expropriation, we accompany the client throughout the procedure. We analyse the assets and rights affected, review their economic valuation, prepare the “hojas de aprecio” (the formal valuation statements) and act before the relevant valuation bodies. Our involvement also covers reversion proceedings and challenges to expropriation decisions, both in administrative proceedings and before the administrative courts.
Local taxation and State liability of the public authorities
Within our public law practice, we provide specific advice on local taxation and cadastral procedures. This is a field distinct from general tax advice, closely bound up with the action of local authorities and with the ownership and valuation of real estate. We act on questions concerning local taxes, cadastral values and schedules of cadastral values, returns and notifications to the “Catastro” (the property cadastre), the correction of discrepancies, administrative appeals and claims before the “tribunales económico-administrativos”, Spain's specialised tax tribunals.
We also have experience in State liability claims for damage arising from the functioning of the public authorities. We analyse the existence and the valuation of the damage, its connection with the administrative action and the remaining requirements for the claim. We then bring the claim through the administrative route and, where necessary, take on its defence before the administrative courts.
Pharmacies
We have specific experience in advising the owners of pharmacies and the professionals connected with them, an activity subject to intense administrative regulation in which regulatory decisions bear directly on the value and the continuity of the business.
We advise on studies and procedures relating to the establishment of new pharmacies, relocations and alterations to premises, the opening of “botiquines” (subsidiary medicine dispensaries) and other administrative action connected with the authorisation and the operation of the pharmacy.
Our practice also covers the sale and purchase and the gift of pharmacies. In these transactions we combine the administrative element with our experience in property and contract law and in contract practice, so as to offer an integrated view of the administrative authorisation and of the legal and economic transaction that accompanies it.
