About Us

History of a first-class Legal organization

José Rafael Fernández, attorney, university professor, mediator and acknowledged arbitrator, decided to do things differently and appropriately to the current needs of the law practice.
After a meticulous planning process, Lic. Fernández conceived and created a legal organization focused exclusively on modern, dispute resolution methods, dedicated to doing things differently in order to obtain better results for our legal clients in todays’ complex world.

Thus, ARBITRAT was born, a first-class Legal Organization where arbitration and other methods of Alternate Dispute Resolution are used in favor of those who choose to trust our services

Jose Rafael Fernandez our founder

Lawyer, arbitrator, conciliator and university professor, with 36 years of professional experience.
Arbitrator with more than 90 arbitration processes processed (2023). He has received training in arbitration in the USA, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Spain and France. He is an arbitrator on the lists of all the main arbitration centers in Costa Rica and of the Ibero-American Arbitration Center and the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Trade.
He was President of the Arbitration Commission and President of the Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
He has been professor of Public International Law, National Arbitration and International Arbitration courses at UACA, UCR, U Latina and Escuela Libre de Derecho.
He is currently Director of the Law School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Costa Rica.

Jose Rafael Fernandez founder of Arbitrat Law.JPG

Silvia Salazar

Sylvia has extensive experience in Corporate Law, accompanying prestigious national and international companies in the planning and structuring of corporate agreements, corporate governance, compliance verification, drafting of business contracts and mergers and acquisitions processes. She has extensive experience in the real estate area, participating in the structuring and operation of real estate projects of different modalities. Among their specialties are: Corporate Law. Notary and Registry Law. Structuring of investment funds and trusts. Special Regimes. Real estate and horizontal property projects.

Of Counsel

Francisco Muñoz

Lawyer, and Notary Public, with broad experience in handling of Notarial matters. He has a keen knowledge of the processes required in public institutions to efficiently produce and record efficient legal documents.
Mr. Muñoz has handled several Notarial Probate Processes leading our legal team to have wills and last testaments duly executed to our client’s satisfaction.
He is an expert in Real Estate transactions, with knowledge of the proper ways to produce the correct documentation to back up the mercantile transactions at hand.

More than twenty years of experience in trademark and copyright registration and has provided advice to both national and foreign clients and legal firms on the protection of their intellectual property assets.

Juan Carlos Castro

Juan Carlos Castro has a PhD from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He served as a Judge in the Contencioso Administrativo Courts, and as an aid –letrado– at the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. He is one of the utmost experts in Administrative Law in Costa Rica with an impeccable carrier. Appart from providing legal advice and litigate, he also works as an Arbitrator. Areas of Expertise: Administrative Law, Tax, Urbanistic, Environmental Municipal Law”

Of Counsel

Gabriel Castro

Gabriel has provided legal representation and strategic advice to corporate clients for years, including multiple Fortune 500 companies, families and individuals doing business in Central America and the Caribbean.
In addition, he has managed strategic legal projects and crisis support for commercial clients and international organizations at a regional level on topics such as: Corporate law and design of corporate and contractual structures. Legal Project Management Mergers and acquisitions. Commercial Law and dispute management and resolution. Bankruptcy Law Antitrust law. Consumer Law
Gabriel has specialized in the management of legal projects in multi-jurisdictional matters, business and credit structuring, transactions, corporate governance, contracts.

Of Counsel