Baker & McKenzie is to become one of the first international law firms with an office in Peru, with the firm merging with Lima-based Estudio Echecopar.

Estudio Echecopar, which is highly rated by Chambers and Partners, is one of Peru's biggest law firms and employs around 250 lawyers, trainees and administrative staff, working across practices including banking and finance, M&A, mining and energy and disputes.

The firm will be known as Estudio Echecopar, a member of Baker & McKenzie, in the local market.

The addition of a Peruvian base will take Bakers' geographic spread to 72 offices across 45 countries, including 15 offices across seven countries in Latin America.

Peru is one of three fast-growing Andean nations expected to become increasingly attractive to international law firms, alongside Chile and Colombia. The three countries, which have developed close free-trade ties and have merged their stock exchanges to facilitate investment, are expected to grow faster than Brazil and Mexico over the next five years.

Bakers executive committee chairman Eduardo Leite, said: "Clients increasingly are looking to Latin America – and especially the promising nations of the Andean Three – for growth opportunities as well as resources.

"We have worked with the lawyers of Estudio Echecopar for more than a decade and could not have found a stronger team to help us meet our clients' growing needs."

Estudio Echecopar managing partner Ismael Noya commented: "The combination of our rich local knowledge and experience with the global resources and reach of Bakers will open new doors for our domestic clients and create opportunities for our lawyers and staff to serve an expanded roster of international companies eager to grow in Peru."

Lima is Bakers' fifth new office in the past two years, following launches in Casablanca, Johannesburg, Istanbul and Doha.

In a separate move, Bakers has appointed Asia Pacific US capital markets head Ashok Lalwani as the new head of its global India practice. Lalwani succeeds David Jacobs, who is retiring as a partner of the firm after leading the practice since 2005.