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Our team

Our attorneys

A team committed to personalized attention.

The Velástegui Abogados team at the office

Founding Partner

Dr. Darío Velástegui Enríquez, PhD

Former Judge and Substitute Judge of the Specialized Chamber for Tax Disputes of the National Court of Justice of the Republic of Ecuador.

“My ethics, knowledge, experience and loyalty will make me worthy of your trust.”

Executive President and Founding Partner of Velástegui Abogados VLegal Cía. Ltda.
Former Justice of Ecuador's National Court of Justice
Expert in Tax Law, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and Cassation Appeals

Education

PhD in Legal Sciences, Universidad Católica de Santa María de los Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Master's in Tax Law, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.
Master's in Constitutional Procedural Law, Universidad Metropolitana del Ecuador.
Advanced Diploma in Tax Law, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.
Doctor of Jurisprudence and Attorney of the Courts of the Republic, Universidad Central del Ecuador.
Bachelor's in Public and Social Sciences, Universidad Central del Ecuador.

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Professional experience

National Court of Justice of Ecuador: National Judge of the Tax Disputes Chamber (President of the Chamber) and Substitute National Judge of the same Chamber.
Ministry of Labor Relations: Acting Vice Minister of Public Service, General Legal Coordinator and Ministerial Advisor.
Ministry of Finance: General Legal Coordinator, General Coordinator of the former AGD and Ministerial Advisor.
Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito: Tax Finance Director, Head of Revenue and Head of Tax Litigation.
Legal Manager at the public company YACHAY EP.

Teaching and training

Graduate professor of local taxation at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador; the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Ecuador (FLACSO-CELAEP-RED-GOB); Universidad Iberoamericana del Ecuador (UNIB.E); Universidad Indoamérica and the Institute of Advanced National Studies (IAEN).
Trainer in workshops and seminars on reforms to the Organic Law of the Municipal Regime and municipal taxes at the Municipal Training Institute (ICAM).
Speaker on a range of legal topics in Ecuador, Brazil and Peru.
National and international courses and seminars in Ecuador, Germany, Spain, the USA, France and Mexico.

Publications (co-author)

“Finanzas Públicas y Derecho Constitucional”, in Derecho Financiero y Derecho Tributario: ensayos en honor del profesor José Vicente Troya Jaramillo. Instituto Ecuatoriano de Derecho Tributario, 1st ed., Quito, January 2017.
“El recurso definitivo en sede jurisdiccional en materia tributaria”, in Instituciones Jurídicas en Perspectiva Comparada. National Court of Justice, 1st ed., Quito, May 2017.
“Derecho tributario ambiental y políticas fiscales ambientales. El ejemplo de países miembros del Sistema de Integración Centroamericano (SICA)”, in El Derecho Natural Ambiental. 1st ed., Guayaquil, 2020.

Articles

Review of “Tratado de Fiscalidad Internacional para el Ecuador”, in Iuris Dictio. Dossier: Los desafíos actuales del derecho tributario, no. 26, Quito, December 2020.
“La tasa aduanera en el Ecuador”, published on aitfa.org.
“La justicia tributaria que queremos”, Institutional Bulletin no. 19 of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, September-October 2015.

Ab. Karla Mora Albán

General Manager

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She graduated from Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja with the degree of Attorney of the Courts of the Republic. Her academic training has given her a solid foundation across the branches of law, preparing her to handle complex legal challenges from a comprehensive perspective.

As General Manager of Velástegui Abogados VLegal Cía. Ltda., she successfully leads a team of legal professionals, managing cases and providing high-quality legal advice, which has established her as a leading professional in the legal field.

Ab. Nicolás López Laspina

Head of Litigation

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Nicolás López Laspina is Head of Litigation at Velástegui Abogados. His practice focuses on Personal Data Protection, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Litigation and Legal Advisory.

Before joining the firm, he worked as Legal Assistant to Constitutional Judge Dr. Ramiro Ávila Santamaría at Ecuador's Constitutional Court. He also gained experience as a legal intern at the Free Legal Clinics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), providing legal assistance to people with limited resources, an experience that strengthened his commitment to human rights and social justice.

He holds a Master's in Data Protection Law from Universidad de La Rioja (Spain), a law degree from PUCE and a Diploma in Data Protection and Regulatory Compliance from Universidad Católica de Cuenca, the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the Ibero-American Institute of Justice. He also completed a continuing education program in Data Protection at the Ibero-American Institute of Law and Economics (IILE).

His specialized knowledge and comprehensive legal approach allow him to deliver strategic, effective solutions in a constantly evolving regulatory environment.

Ab. Nicole Ayala

Senior Attorney

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Education

Nicole Ayala completed her undergraduate studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, earning the degree of Attorney of the Courts of the Republic. She also completed the Diploma in Personal Data Protection Management at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. She was director of the sports committee of the Law School Association in 2020, then vice president of the association in 2021, and a member of the Editorial Committee of Revista Ruptura of the Faculty of Jurisprudence.

Work experience

Legal intern, Durinni & Guerrero, 2019
Legal intern, Fexlaw, 2020
Legal assistant, LEXWORKS, 2021
Legal assistant, Solines & Asociados, 2022

External professionals

We are backed by external professionals with high academic and professional standards, making us a comprehensive firm that delivers first-class service.

Ec. María Dolores Almeida Sánchez

External professional

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An economist who graduated from Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (Argentina), she holds a Master's in Economics with an emphasis on Decentralization and Local Development and a Diploma in Gender-Equitable Budgeting.

She has more than 20 years of experience in public finance, fiscal decentralization, environmental finance, rights-based fiscal policy and the financial and economic evaluation of projects, among other fields. She has held public office as Vice Minister of Finance and Undersecretary of Public Investment, among other roles, and has been a finance consultant for international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, German Technical Cooperation, UN Women, UNICEF, UNEP and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Over the last five years her work has focused mainly on climate finance, with an emphasis on institutional analysis and the quantification of public and private climate spending in several Latin American countries (CPEIR and PCEIR), REDD+ financing strategies, environmental fiscal policies and strategies to mainstream gender in environmental projects, among others.

Dr. Jorge Guillermo Portela, PhD

External professional

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Lawyer from the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires and Doctor of Legal Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina “Santa María de los Buenos Aires”.

Full Professor of Introduction to Law and of Formation of Legal and Political Thought; Regular Professor in the Department of Philosophy of Law; and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law of Universidad San Pablo de Arequipa (Peru).

He has published more than seventy articles in specialized journals and has taught and lectured at universities in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador and Spain.

Published books

La Justicia y el Derecho Natural (Arequipa, 2006; 3rd ed. 2016)
La justificación iusnaturalista de la desobediencia civil y de la objeción de conciencia (2005)
La obediencia al Derecho y otros ensayos (2nd ed., 2003)
Una introducción a los valores jurídicos (2008)
Derecho, desobediencia civil y principios jurídicos (Lima, 2011)
Orígenes y desarrollo del contractualismo político (2012)
Co-editor, with Dr. Francisco Puy: La argumentación jurídica. Problemas de concepto, método y aplicación (2004) and La argumentación de los operadores jurídicos (2005)

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