Ricardo Chanis advises companies, family-owned businesses, and international investors on complex transactions, corporate reorganizations, and cross-border business structuring. With twenty-plus years of transactional experience in Panama, he specializes in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, and strategic business operations across Latin America.

Ricardo leads the firm’s M&A & Business Transactions practice, guiding clients through sophisticated deal structures, multi-jurisdictional reorganizations, joint ventures, and growth strategies. He holds IMAA certification in mergers and acquisitions — and brings to every mandate what most M&A lawyers do not: a business degree and an MBA alongside the legal credential. That combination means the advice is built around the commercial logic of the deal, not just its legal mechanics. His experience spans logistics, real estate, healthcare, technology, and financial services, with particular strength in deals requiring agility, senior-level involvement, and commercial judgment.

Before founding CHANIS in 2005, Ricardo was a senior lawyer at one of Panama’s leading full-service firms — and prior to that served as corporate counsel during the reversion of the Canal Zone territories to Panamanian sovereignty, one of the most consequential legal and institutional processes in Panama’s modern history. Both experiences shaped a founding partner who is at home in high-stakes environments: multiple parties, competing interests, and decisions with lasting consequences.

His practice integrates corporate advisory with commercial contracts, regulatory compliance, employment matters, tax structuring, and dispute resolution — drawing on the full scope and depth of CHANIS’s practice to position him as a trusted business advisor across the full operating lifecycle of a company. When a transaction requires extrajudicial negotiation or moves into litigation, he stays in the matter through every stage.