I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
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BECERRA was founded in 1918 as a partnership and has maintained this distinctive characteristic throughout its long history. In its early years its main objective was centered on legal advice and management services in the field of Tax Law. The gradual updating of the latter regulations has led to the incorporation of new professional staff members who have opened up the legal side of the business and widened its activities into Commercial, Civil and Administrative Law, in addition to matters involving Exchange Control and Foreign Investments in Spain. The growing complexity of legal problems, particularly of a fiscal nature, has led to, the intensification of this tendency started some thirty years ago, the entry of new partners into the business, and the renewal of the professional team.
In conjunction with the development outlined above, there has been considerable growth in the role of the Group's economic, accounting and auditing consultancy services on the one hand, and in the incidence of labour relations and Social Security regulations on the other.
These circumstances have led to the successive setting up of new departments which have acquired their own independence as they consolidated their activities, which in turn has led to the current existence of four companies with the following objectives:
- BECERRA ABOGADOS:Tax, Commercial and Administrative Law
- BECERRA DERECHO SOCIAL:Labour and Social Security Law
- BECERRA ECONOMISTES:Business Economics, Consultancy and Accounting
- BECERRA AUDITORES:Accounts auditing accounts for companies and other entities
The areas of involvement for the companies listed above is very wide and their precise contents are described in the following pages.
At the begining, the clients of the partnership where wholly Spanish in origin, and mostly from Catalonia. However, the internal restructuring begun some thirty years ago coincided with the liberalization of the Spanish economy and these circumstances helped in the expansion of commercial contacts with foreign clients, although a fundamental part of our clientele is still Spanish.
Our clients represent a wide range of commercial activities: Large and medium sized companies; small companies and individual businessmen; individuals with large and medium-sized investments and property. Thus, the Group has gained a wide and diversified knowledge of Spanish economy and the problems facing companies in Spain. Our Group, therefore, is highly qualified to offer all the services required by businesses, regardless of size, interests, category or origin of their capital.
Furthermore, BECERRA, as with many similar organizations, is a professional group which specializes in foreign investments in Spain, but whose aim is far more ambitious in that such operations normally involve the commencement of a lengthy and intensive process of follow-up and advice on taxation, commercial, economic/financial, administrative and labour matters throughout the life of the investment.
III.OUR EXTERNAL CONSULTANTS AND CORRESPONDENTS
The legal and economic transformation undergone by Spain in recent years as well as the internationalization of exchanges - involving personnel, goods and capital - has led to increasing difficulties in resolving problems. BECERRA has responded in four different areas:
1) The setting up of a group of external consultants whose work involves both the preparation of reports as well as a more direct involvement with clients.
In this respect, the different problems are entrusted to those professionals who may take direct charge of the client's affairs, always under our supervision.
In other matters, they are able to confirm criteria established by our Group and issue expert opinions on matters of more marked significance.
2) The setting up of correspondents in Brussels - in order to deal with problems with Community Institutions - as well as in other major European centres.
3) The maintenance of close and constant contact with other offices in Madrid in order to keep abreast of opinions and practices in the Central Government.
4) Membership of various Catalan and Spanish associations involved in tax, economic, accounting and labour consultancy services.
BECERRA has always held that the one basic condition of professional service should be its high quality. The complexity of the subjects when tackled from taxation, commercial, labour and economic points of view means that this level of quality can only be attained, among other ways, through a very close contact with the University. This relationship has been established by certain members of the Group giving lectures to law degree courses as well as special post graduate courses and lectures to the general public under the auspices of the Abat Oliba University College of Barcelona. This bilateral relationship provides an excellent breeding ground from which to harvest the fruits of the theoretical level of Law and Economic Sciences, complemented by the daily and continuous practice of all our staff members.
In this sense, we like to think that BECERRA is a pioneer in Spain in the desire to overcome the secular inertia of the purely theoretical - often dismissed as of little interest - as opposed to actual practice. Conscious of the fact that the only way to defend and advise the client is a profound knowledge of the Practice of Law and Economics, this group has set its sights on a dynamic future based on the knowledge that can only be offered by the university tradition.
To conclude, in line with the object of offering the maximum quality in service, the members of the group regularly attend refresher and retraining courses organized by the leading entities in the field.
BECERRA is a group of professionals whose special characteristic is the desire at all times to be directly responsible to their clients for matters entrusted to them. What this means is that delegation and division of responsibilities, typical of other business organizations, does not take place in our office and, in the event of delegating any work, this is always done under the direct responsibility and supervision of the person given overall responsibility for the work entrusted to him.
BECERRA is therefore a group which operates in response to the guidelines and requirements of its partners, without the existing structure being an interference or obstacle to obtaining the principal of seriousness and efficiency which is essential to the provision of high quality service.
Lastly, BECERRA, in the light of the characteristics described above, and a desire expressed throughout its many years of service, believes that the best means of offering excellence in service to its clients is to maintain a simple and agile structure, in this way avoiding complex and top-heavy systems which only tend to stand in the way of quality service.
Foreign languages in common use within the group are English, French and Italian.
To summarize, the basic characteristics of our organization are based on the following principals:
1) Professional and top-quality service
2) Respect for the ethical rules inherent to the condition of professionals, in accordance with applicable guidelines.
3) Simplicity in dealing with and direct access of the client to the professional handling the matter.
