Arizon is a highly regarded set of commercial & maritime lawyers in Spain grouped under several independent corporate bodies. We follow a long standing tradition in shipping and international trade business. Additionally, Agricultural law, Corporate law, Labour law and Insurance law, are core areas of our practice.
History: Arizon, international trade, and shipping, are synonymous in Spanish History. The Arizon family, of British roots (Harrison), left Great Britain following Henry VIII’s prosecution against Catholics. Settled in Spain, initially in Cataluña, later on in Sanlucar, the Arizon family ran, during the XVII and XVIII centuries, the largest shipping and trading house in Spain. From Spain to South America and return, Arizon exported and imported a great variety of commodities such as oils, grains, wines, seeds and silver.
They owned and operated a very large fleet, more than thirty ships, together with magnificent warehouses which became major doors for the export of catalán products overseas, such as grains, wines, oils, and for the import of minerals, cocoa, wines, and other commodities from South America. These warehouses, given the outstanding relationship between King Philip V of Spain and the Arizon family, were for some time warehouses of the Spanish Crown. Some ships were too at the disposal of the Crown when and where required.
The Arizon fleet included since 1690, inter alia, the following ships; “El Nuevo Loreto; El León Viejo; Santa Teresa; El Conde de Maurepass; El Postillón de Hannover; El Fuerte; La Providencia; Agata Galera; El Enrique; La Fortuna; San Estanislao (burned by Admiral Frenolles at Martinique after being taken by the English), El Salvador (sank at Virginia), Sueco de Arizon (sank at Florida); San Francisco Javier, Santa Rosa (The Tiger, armed with 20 cannons and above 45 crew; 7 officers, 32 mariners, and 8 other crew, a surgeon, a barber, a guard, a carpenter, a boatswain, 3 cabin boys…, taken by the English at Lagos, Portugal, when returning from the 1747 trip to Veracruz, Mexico). Some wrecks of the Arizon fleet can still be seen throughout the American and Spanish coasts, eg Sueco de Arizon in Florida (U.S.).
Our logo represents the Arizon Tower; erected in 1721 and still standing, this tower was used to make out the departure and arrival of the ships owned or chartered for trading by the Arizon family.
Today, Arizon keeps the trading & shipping tradition by providing legal services to shipowners, charterers, trading houses, shippers, exporters, importers, cooperatives, large farmers, and their insurers and bankers worldwide.