DLA Piper has boosted its corporate, finance, litigation and tax offering in Mexico City with the arrival of a six-partner team from White & Case. 

The firm has also named two new office co-managing partners — Alvaro Garza-Galvan, who joins from White & Case, and current partner Diego Martinez. The duo are taking over for Eduardo Gallastegui, who will become the office’s emeritus managing partner. Gallastegui has held the role since his firm, Gallastegui y Lozano, was acquired by DLA Piper in 2015. 

Garza-Galvan makes the jump after more than 15 years at White & Case, where he specialised in advising clients in M&A, banking and finance and securities transactions. He joined the US firm in 2004 from local practice Kuri Breña and was promoted to partner in 2016. 

Gallestegui said that since his firm combined with DLA Piper it has “notably expanded" the Mexico City office and increased its ability to serve clients based in Mexico and those who wish to expand their operations there, adding that efforts to grow the office will remain a priority as the firm continues to bolster its capabilities across the Americas. 

Joining the firm alongside Garza-Galvan are partners Mauricio Valdespino, Roberto Ríos Artigas, Antonio Cárdenas, Daniel González Estrada and Guillermo Aguayo. 

Valdespino specialises in M&A, private equity, real estate, corporate and commercial law, while Artigas focuses his practice on project finance, infrastructure and energy matters. Cardenas, meanwhile, specialises in bringing amparo proceedings and ordinary defence procedures in administrative matters, as well as counsel in regulatory matters and relations with authorities. 

Aguayo provides clients with tax advice in cross-border and domestic mergers, acquisitions and corporate reorganisations, among other complex tax matters. Gonzalez Estrada focuses on civil, commercial and bankruptcy litigation as well as amparo proceedings with emphasis on commercial and civil law matters. 

The firm said the team’s combined strengths will lend themselves to improving its position in Mexico City’s trade and investment market given its status as a key hub for economic activity. 

“The expansion of our Mexico City office is consistent with the strategy that we have delineated across the Americas and specific markets in the region,” said John Gilluly, the firm’s managing partner for the Americas. “With now more than 350 lawyers in Latin America, we are well positioned for continued success.”

DLA Piper opened its doors in Mexico City in 2012 and has seven offices in Latin America, including in Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru and Argentina. 

The firm’s LatAm expansion strategy saw it add a five-lawyer team last October from Mayer Brown’s local ally Tauil & Chequer Advogados to boost its oil and gas, maritime, environmental, litigation and arbitration offerings, in response to growing client demand for expertise in the energy sector.  

In other local news, Greenberg Traurig nabbed seven lawyers from Holland & Knight to set up a labour and employment practice in Mexico City last month, while employment giant Littler opened an office in the Mexican industrial city of Saltillo, adding to its existing presence in Mexico City and Monterrey.