Jairo Higuita Naranjo: “We want to leverage the international network to consolidate the firm both nationally and internationally.”
Juan Francisco Torres Landa, from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader: “What distinguishes a good advisor is the ability to give calm, well-founded and strategic advice”
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Foundation: 2020
etelles@ignitebusinesslaw.com
HIGHLIGHT:
IGNITE is a boutique, multi-practice firm where the partner attends directly to the client, with no intermediaries, no unnecessary delegation. Its team comes from leading firms in El Salvador and the region, ensuring first-rate expertise from the very first contact. The result is a close, agile working relationship committed to the client’s actual outcome, not just the scope of the engagement.
IGNITE Legal & Financial Advisors is a boutique, multi-practice firm founded in El Salvador in 2020, built on a clear proposition: high-level legal advice with direct access to the partner. In a market where clients are frequently handled by junior teams, IGNITE breaks that mold. The partner doesn’t just sign off, they attend to, respond to, and accompany every engagement from the outset.
The firm operates on three practice pillars: Business & Finance, covering corporate and commercial law, banking and fintech, M&A, family business governance, energy and infrastructure; IP & Regulatory, with a practice dedicated to intellectual property, health/regulatory law, advertising and data privacy; and Litigation & ADR, with capabilities in civil and commercial litigation, domestic and international arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution methods.
What sets IGNITE apart is not only the breadth of its practice, but the profile of the professionals who make it up: individuals from leading firms in Central America, with international training and a proven track record. The firm is based in San Salvador with a regional outlook, serving mid-size and large companies, foreign investment groups, business families and high-growth startups.
Eduardo Telles
Managing Partner
Marcela Mancía
Partner
Founding partner of IGNITE Legal & Financial Advisors, with more than 30 years of experience in business law.
Eduardo Telles is the founding partner of IGNITE Legal & Financial Advisors. With more than 30 years of experience in business law, he has built a solid practice in corporate and commercial law, banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, energy and telecommunications.
He earned his law degree from Universidad Dr. José Matías Delgado and completed postgraduate studies at INCAE Business School and Georgetown University, specializing in International Business Law, a combination that reflects his focus on clients with complex operations and high-value transactions.
Telles is a member of the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador and practices fluently in both Spanish and English, allowing him to advise local and international clients with equal rigor. His working style is direct, strategic and results-oriented, the same style that defines IGNITE as a firm: expert without being intimidating, approachable without losing rigor.
Partner at IGNITE Legal & Financial Advisors, where she leads the Intellectual Property and Regulatory practice
Marcela Mancía, an attorney with more than 26 years of experience, is a Partner at IGNITE Legal & Financial Advisors, where she leads the Intellectual Property and Regulatory practice—one of the fastest-growing areas in the Central American legal sector. Her addition to the firm significantly expands IGNITE’s service scope, reinforcing its profile as a multi-practice boutique firm with genuine technical depth in each of its core areas.
Her expertise spans intellectual property, sanitary registrations, anti-piracy, and advertising law. She has advised international clients such as Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V. and S. Tous S.L., and has collaborated with Balder IP, a leading regional firm for IP matters. This track record demonstrates her ability to manage trademark portfolios, anti-piracy litigation, and regulatory filings to exacting standards.
Mancía holds a degree in Legal and Social Sciences from Dr. José Matías Delgado University and is licensed to practice law and serve as a Notary Public in El Salvador. She furthered her professional development through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, specializing in Intellectual Property Rights Protection (Washington D.C., 2008), the Lex Mundi Institute Foundation Management Program, and a diploma course in Legal English from Javeriana University (Spain)—a background that enables her to practice with equal proficiency in both local and international contexts.
She is an active member of ASIPI (Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property), a role that reinforces her standing as a regional technical authority in the field.
