DLA combines with local firm while Baker & McKenzie boosts its Mexican office
Mexico’s legal market has seen steady growth as President Enrique Peña Nieto’s package of reforms, including widespread tax breaks and the opening up of the energy sector to foreign companies, liberalises the economy. Last month saw both DLA Piper and Baker & McKenzie seek to capitalise on that growth by making strategic hires to broaden their offerings.
DLA Piper made its move by combining with local firm Gallástegui y Lozano (GyL) in Mexico City under the name DLA Piper Gallástegui y Lozano. The combination boosted the firm’s existing office with seven GyL partners joining and saw GyL’s business, telecoms, pharma and M&A specialist Eduardo Gallástegui Armella take control as managing partner.
The office will now house 23 lawyers in total, with other partners joining including M&A lawyers María Eugenia Ríos and Jorge Benejam, banking and finance partner Gerardo Lozano, real estate specialist Gabriela Alaña, energy partner Marcelo Páramo and arbitration practitioner Cecilia Azar.
However, this gain was offset with the loss of three partners to Baker & McKenzie. Betting on the growing economy driving transactional work, M&A partners Carlos Valencia and Tatiana Escribano, and real estate and infrastructure partner Miguel Bernardo de Erice-Rodriguez were brought into the firm along with four associates.
The laterals come at a strong time for Bakers in Mexico, which has five offices throughout the country, having established its first in Mexico City in 1961, and which saw 11% growth in revenues in the year to 30 June 2014. Baker & McKenzie’s Mexico managing partner, Andrés Ochoa-Bünsow, said: ‘We have identified energy, infrastructure and telecoms, particularly in the M&A space, as areas for priority investment and lateral hires. The reforms are fuelling growth and I wouldn’t expect anything less than double-digit growth in annual revenue over the next few years.’
One of the key reforms for US firms operating in the market is President Nieto’s recent legislation aimed at opening up the telecoms industry, which has traditionally been dominated by Carlos Slim’s América Móvil and Televisa. With companies like Verizon moving south of the border, US firms in particular are competing to get work, and signs are that DLA and Bakers won’t be the only ones expanding in the market. Others are also looking to boost their offerings, with both Greenberg Traurig and Jones Day understood to be considering their options.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk