The Technology Expert Who Now Leads Marval
Since late 2025, Gustavo Giay, the partner leading the Intellectual Property and Technology practices, has been Marval’s new chairman.
He joined the firm in 1995 without knowing anyone, after leaving his résumé at the former office on Carlos Pellegrini street, before the move to Retiro. He built his career within the Intellectual Property area and, over the years, specialised in technology, data privacy and, today, artificial intelligence. Since last 9 December, Gustavo Giay has been the new chairman of the Board of Marval O’Farrell Mairal, the country’s largest law firm, with 67 partners and more than 300 lawyers in total. He succeeded Santiago Carregal, who, after leading the firm for eight years, will become a consultant in the coming months, in compliance with the internal rule requiring partners to retire upon turning 65.
The firm’s new number one had already secured the partners’ agreement to lead the firm a year earlier, and carried out a quiet transition with Carregal to get up to speed with the role.
The fact that Giay is an expert in technology law — with more than 25 years advising unicorns and multinational companies in the sector in the country and the region — says a great deal about the speed of transformation taking place across all sectors, including legal services.
“The Technology sector confronted me very directly with innovation. I was able to understand early on the profound technological transformation that we were going to face in the industry and at Marval, and I set to work on that by leading the firm’s innovation initiatives,” he says.
Appointed partner in 2003, Giay developed the firm’s Technology law department. In 2012, he proposed to his partners a plan called Marval 2023 — coinciding with the centenary the firm would celebrate — to accelerate technological investment in the years that followed. He says that his contact with clients in the tech world gave him an early approach to the challenge of cultural change within organisations when technological innovation emerges, an experience he sought to bring into the firm. “We tried to bring technology into every area and that prepared us better for the stage we are experiencing today,” he told LA NACION, in the first interview he has given.
Born in Arrecifes, Giay says he always wanted to be a business lawyer. A year after joining Marval, he went to Chicago to pursue a master’s degree in law — a necessary step for professionals at major law firms — and when he returned he had his first exposure to the technological world through the first dot-com companies and the rise of the internet in Argentina. In addition to being the firm’s new chairman, he continues to lead the Intellectual Property and Information Technology, Privacy and Artificial Intelligence practices, dividing his time between both functions.
–What does it mean that your partners chose you, bringing a technological perspective, to lead the firm at this moment?
–I believe they are anticipating the times ahead, because innovation and generative artificial intelligence are going to bring about a fairly radical transformation in the way law firms provide services and, above all, in the way clients do business. A perspective that can understand those changes today is a contribution. This does not mean that the firm is going to set aside traditional practices, but simply that innovation is now visible across all areas in which companies do business.
–What specific changes are taking place as a result of the use of artificial intelligence in legal advice, and what do you project for the future?
–Marval was the first local firm to use artificial intelligence, with its own development, Marvalia. We worked extensively on process automation when the topic was not even being discussed. By the time AI arrived, we had already covered a significant part of the path. Today, three out of four companies use AI in some way. We have developed systems so that clients can interact and receive information in real time, with greater transparency in the management of the matters they entrust to us. We are working with artificial intelligence agents incorporated into our work processes and, of course, we use all the tools and platforms available in the market. Today we are leading the incorporation of technology into legal services, not only in Argentina but throughout the region. This is taking place in a context of many business opportunities as well. The country is reconnecting with the world and I think that is very positive. We always see technological transformation as an opportunity and not as a threat.
–Can the use of AI displace entry-level jobs, the role of junior lawyers? How do you see that situation?
–It is a challenge and also a huge opportunity. From the organisation’s point of view, if different generations can work in a complementary way and add value from what they know how to do, the final product will always be of higher quality. At Marval, we work extensively with digital natives so they can operate the systems we use, and with those who have experience so that they can guide them in the use of tools for concrete problems. The complementarity of different profiles is a huge opportunity to create value for the client.
–And what do you think the role of the lawyer will be in this context dominated by AI?
–I think judgment and experience will continue to be decisive. And, above all, trust. No matter how much technological change there may be, the profession is based on the trust that clients place in the judgment one can provide. I think that, far from becoming less relevant, lawyers will become more important for another reason: general counsel are increasingly participating in strategic decisions within companies. The regulatory environment has become more complex and there is a greater need for strategic thinking, a greater need to manage risk profiles, and more compliance issues. The value of in-house lawyers and external counsel is at an excellent moment and technology will not change that, but will rather enhance it.
–How is Argentina seen abroad by the investors with whom the firm has permanent contact? Are there more enquiries?
–Argentina continues to generate a great deal of interest abroad. We have entered a process of normalisation of economic variables and greater openness to the world, with the recent signing of the Mercosur-European Union treaty and the agreement with the United States. That, together with the reforms the Government is promoting — labour and tax — forms a path towards providing greater stability for investors. It is very encouraging for Argentina and for those doing business here.
–Are the sectors drawing interest the expected ones — energy and mining — or are there more?
–Today we are working on transactions in practically every industry, with a very clear focus on those strategic sectors such as mining, energy, oil and gas and the knowledge industry, but also in other industries in which we see a strong appetite to invest in the country. In recent months alone, US$35 billion has been announced in copper mining. Eighty-five per cent of that investment, through advising companies directly or their shareholders, is being handled by Marval. Today we are working on 50% of the gold and silver projects in Argentina. And there is obviously a great deal of activity in energy as well, with enormous development potential looking ahead.
–And in other sectors? What do you see?
–There is greater demand in the technology infrastructure sector, in the construction of data centres. Open AI announced a very large investment in southern Argentina. We see greater dynamism in food, in the automotive industry, in the privatisation of state-owned companies, which also generate foreign interest. Naturally, the strategic sectors are those attracting the largest number of enquiries today.
–What are investors raising about Argentina in their enquiries? Is there concern about whether the process of change is sustainable?
–Today the enquiry focuses on the long-term sustainability of the measures being adopted, in order to regain the trust of investors who for years viewed Argentina differently. There are many regulatory enquiries about how the way they do business changes as a result of a reform. They also look for opportunities. We try to bring them proactively to clients, such as companies that are about to be privatised. But I would say that, in general, the greatest interest has to do with the sustainability of the reforms and their continuity over time.
By Pablo Ortega
This insight is a brief comment on legal news in Argentina; it does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis or to provide legal advice.