Herbert Smith Freehills has strengthened its disputes practice in Spain with the hire of David Arias and a team of four other litigation and arbitration lawyers in Madrid.

Arias joins HSF from Arias SLP, a firm he founded in 2014. Before that, he spent 16 years as a partner at Pérez-Llorca, where he established its dispute resolution practice.

A professor in procedural law and arbitration from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Arias is well known in the international arbitration community, in Spain and elsewhere. He has served as arbitrator and counsel in hundreds of cases in venues across Europe, America and Africa, and he regularly participates in proceedings administered by the world's main arbitration institutions.

His team includes Arias partner Luis Capiel, who will join the firm as of counsel. Capiel, a Germany-qualified lawyer who is admitted to the Madrid and the Munich Bars, joined Arias SLP in 2018 and has more than 10 years' experience practising international arbitration in Europe and Latin America.

The others jumping to HSF are associates Oliver Cojo, Diego Alexandre-García and Svetlana Shelepina.

"The Arias team will boost our already consolidated disputes and arbitration department in Madrid and will bolster the tremendous success that has already been achieved by the practice, which has become a key area of the Spanish office in a very short timeframe," Herbert Smith Freehills Madrid managing partner Miguel Riaño said in a statement.

Justin D'Agostino, HSF's global head of disputes, added that client demand for the firm's global disputes expertise remains high and the firm plans to continue to strengthen its offering across the globe.

"The addition of David and his team to the team in Madrid, who already have a very strong reputation in the market, demonstrates our commitment to continued and steady growth with elite teams and quality lateral hires across Europe," he said.

Arias, who will begin working at HSF on Tuesday, said in a statement that the team is excited to join HSF.

"It has very quickly become a go-to firm for business law in the Spanish market and is also ranked as the world's number one firm for disputes and arbitration," he said. "We are now part of an ambitious and exciting project, which will allow us to better tackle the challenges ahead and offer a broader and more comprehensive service to our clients."

Herbert Smith Freehills opened its Madrid office in June 2009.