Our story
A firm that evolves without forgetting its story.
The firm enters a new chapter under the name Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia, with a new legal structure and a renewed vision. Its history, however, reaches back to Derecho y Justicia - Law and Justice, founded by Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez in 1998 and formally incorporated as Derecho y Justicia – Law and Justice Bufete de Abogados S.A. in 2003.
Our story is one of continuity: accumulated experience, satisfied clients over decades, legal scholarship, institutional relationships, and an approach to the practice of law that has continued to evolve with legal doctrine and the needs of those we advise.
In 2026, we entered a new stage with J. David Illingworth’s involvement in the development and expansion of the firm, the adoption of the Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia identity, and a broader focus on international private wealth, corporate, real estate, constitutional and cross-border matters, particularly those connecting Ecuador with the United States and foreign clients who live, invest or maintain interests in Ecuador.
Our Timeline
1988
Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez begins her legal practice in Ecuador.
1989–1990
She joins the respected firm "Estudio Jurídico Terán y Terán" as an associate, working in corporate and business legal advisory.
1990–1996
She becomes a partner at G.V.G. Asociados, advising companies, investors and foreign clients.
1990's
Her work expands across Ecuadorian public institutions, corporate matters, investment, commerce and legal structuring.
1998
Derecho y Justicia is founded as an independent legal practice under the direction of Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez.
2003
The firm adopts its corporate structure as Derecho y Justicia – Law and Justice Bufete de Abogados S.A. with multiple associates.
2000s–2020s
Derecho y Justicia continues advising on corporate, private wealth, contractual, real estate and investment matters. Earlier legal writings by Magdalena Vélez Egüez are subsequently cited in Ecuadorian academic research.
2026
The practice enters a new institutional stage, led jointly by Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez and J. David Illingworth, under the identity Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia.
2026 en adelante
The new firm preserves the professional legacy of Derecho y Justicia while expanding into a boutique, interdisciplinary and cross-border practice serving businesses, families, private clients, investors, and national and international clients.
1988
1990
1998
2003
2026
Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez earned her Doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Universidad Central del Ecuador and began practicing law in 1988.
From the outset, her professional career combined private law, corporate advisory work and experience within public institutions. She undertook legal work with the Instituto Nacional de la Niñez y la Familia and subsequently joined Estudio Jurídico Terán y Terán, where her practice focused on business and corporate legal matters.
Between 1990 and 1996, she was a partner at G.V.G. Asociados, where her work included advising companies, investors and foreign nationals. In 1995, she also served in a legal advisory capacity at the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social, participating in institutional restructuring, investments and divestments, and debt-recovery matters.
The birth of Derecho y Justicia
In 1998, Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez consolidated her independent practice under the name Derecho y Justicia.
The name was never intended to function merely as a commercial designation. It expressed a straightforward view of legal practice: knowing the law is not enough unless that knowledge can be translated into a legally sound and, where appropriate, just solution.
Derecho y Justicia developed as a private practice focused principally on the prevention, structuring and resolution of legal issues affecting individuals, families, entrepreneurs and investors. Long before concepts such as legal design, private wealth planning and preventive legal counsel became commonplace in the legal market, the practice already operated according to a principle we retain today: the best dispute is often the one that was properly structured before it ever arose.
Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez’s work was not confined to client files and individual matters. During the early years of her independent practice, she published practical legal and business guidance in Ecuadorian media, including Diario La Hora, addressing subjects such as exports, contracts, transportation, electronic commerce and legal certainty in commercial transactions.
Academic research produced by institutions including the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo subsequently cited and relied upon work by Magdalena Vélez Egüez concerning electronic commerce, exports and related legal and commercial matters.
Derecho y Justicia – Law and Justice Bufete de Abogados S.A.
In 2003, the practice entered a new corporate stage under the legal name:
DERECHO Y JUSTICIA – LAW AND JUSTICE BUFETE DE ABOGADOS S.A.
We preserve both dates because they represent different chapters of the same professional history: 1998 marks the founding of Derecho y Justicia as a legal practice; 2003 marks its formal corporate organization.
Law, Institutions and Business
The practice developed during a particularly significant period of institutional and economic transformation in Ecuador. Its experience was shaped both by private practice and by direct involvement with public institutions, state modernization, commerce and investment.
We have never understood legal practice as merely producing filings or citing statutes. Serious legal advice requires an understanding of how businesses operate, how wealth is structured, how institutions actually function, how capital moves and, above all, how the people behind a legal decision will ultimately live with its consequences.
That approach remains central to Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia.
Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia
In 2026, the practice begins a new institutional chapter under the identity Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia.
The current merger is established in 2026. The professional history it carries forward is considerably older.
The purpose of the new structure is not to break with Derecho y Justicia. It is to develop what Derecho y Justicia spent decades building.
Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia does not present a firm established in 2026 as though it had operated under that name for thirty years. The actual history is both more precise and more meaningful: a legal practice that began decades earlier, evolved through different institutional stages and, in 2026, adopted a new structure designed for legal problems considerably different from those its clients faced in 1998.
Our Legacy
Vélez & Illingworth | Derecho y Justicia does not arise solely from a recent professional relationship with law, institutions or public service. For its partners, practicing law also means continuing family traditions that, in different forms and different periods, have been connected for generations with Ecuador’s legal, political, academic and commercial life.
Across the background of both partners are lawyers, judges, legislators, professors of law, governors, ministers, business leaders and public officials. It is not a story built around a single distinguished figure viewed retrospectively. It is a much broader recurrence: successive generations found their place in the administration of justice, universities, Congress, commerce, public service and the institutions that helped shape the country.
“Law was always present in my family. From Don Tomás Vélez de Guevara, a lawyer before the Royal Audiencia of Lima at the beginning of the eighteenth century, to much closer generations such as my great-grandfathers Julio Vicente Enríquez Albán and Ramón Ezequiel Vélez Illescas, both lawyers. My uncle Pedro Manuel José Vélez Sáenz de Viteri was likewise a lawyer and notary public. I grew up with those examples and with the belief that practicing law carries a responsibility. When I began my career in 1988 and later founded Derecho y Justicia in 1998, I wanted to build something of my own upon those same principles: independence, responsibility, honesty and respect for the trust that a person places in their lawyer.”
Dr. Magdalena Vélez Egüez, Founding Partner
For J. David Illingworth, that storyis deeply personal. Law, politics, academia, enterprise and public service have been present from an early age through members of his own family as his role models whom he looked up to and admired.
“My great-uncle Juan Alfredo Illingworth Baquerizo was an accomplished lawyer, professor of law and legislator who later served as President of Ecuador’s Senate, but behind all of that is the part that matters most to me: he was simply a good man. The same can be said of role model, my uncle and godfather, Dr. Robert Illingworth Cabanilla, who has been one of my greatest inspirations both as a person and as a lawyer. My great-grandfather was always part of the family lore, Dr. Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno was an accomplished lawyer before becoming President of Ecuador, and our family’s legal tradition reaches considerably further back, to William Illingworth III, a lawyer of the King’s Bench in London in 1788. I can only hope to follow those footsteps with the same commitment to justice, honesty and service.”
J. David Illingworth, Partner
That history is also one of our principal motivations. Both partners take particular pride in coming from people whose names we learned to associate with service, integrity, personal honor and the value of one’s word.
Those moral standards matter that us. We believe professional prestige is built not merely through positions held, wealth accumulated or results achieved, but through a reputation capable of surviving the passage of time. A name, one’s word and the trust placed in a lawyer by a client have a value that should never be traded for short-term financial convenience.
That is why, as Vélez & Illingworth enters its new institutional chapter, part of its purpose is to carry forward that understanding of professionalism. Honor, independence, rigor, integrity, respect for institutions, willingness to stand against abuses of power, and responsible stewardship of the assets and interests entrusted to us by our clients.
For us, the most difficult asset to build is not financial. It is a good name. And sacrificing it for money would, quite simply, be bad business.
If you would like to discuss a legal matter with our team, our office is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.