Paola Hernández Villalvazo > González Calvillo > Mexico City, Mexico > Lawyer Profile
González Calvillo Offices
MONTES URALES 632
LOMAS DE CHAPULTEPEC
Mexico
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Paola Hernández Villalvazo
Position
Counsel at González Calvillo
Career
Paola has a career of 31 years in legal areas in both public and private industrial sectors. For the last 20 years, she worked in Grupo México’s mining division (Americas Mining Corporation –AMC-), Mexico’s largest mining company. During her tenure at AMC, she held numerous high-profile positions including Compliance Officer, Environmental Director and Deputy Director of Environmental and Health Legal Affairs.
Prior to this, Paola worked at Mexico’s Ministry of Economy regarding the imposition of antidumping measures and international arbitration procedures in NAFTA and WTO.
Paola has a very a strong reputation and invaluable experience in environmental law but also technical expertise which lead her to lead environmental mining operations in México, the United States, Peru and Spain. Among her numerous achievements she developed and implemented the legal strategy to release the first two private in situ hazardous mining waste confinements in stable geological formation in Mexico including soil remediation. The methodology implemented was later incorporated into Mexican law and official standards.
Her legal and technical environmental expertise allowed her to be named one of Mexico’s representatives for NAFTA’s (currently USMCA’s) Commission for Environmental Cooperation Joint Public Advisory Committee (“JPAC”) from 2018 to 2020 which advises the Council on a wide array of environmental issues within the scope of the Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.
Also at AMC, Paola implemented the compliance function in Mexico, Peru, the United States and Spain. This professional experience also brought her corporate governance expertise.
Languages
Spanish and English
Memberships
Women in Mining Mexico
Women in Compliance
Education
Paola holds a Law Degree (J.D. equivalent) from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, an LLM in Environmental Law from Universidad del Pais Vasco and a Compliance Officer Degree, certification from Universidad Miguel de Cervantes in Spain and the World Compliance Association and two negotiation training courses in Harvard Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lawyer Rankings
Mexico > Environment
The nine-strong environmental practice at Gonzalez Calvillo
handles the full array of environmental matters, ranging from contract review and environmental due diligence, through risk mitigation and preventative measures, to project development related matters and administrative litigation. The group also houses expertise regarding clean development mechanisms, climate change policy and ESG. Recent matters include assisting Smurfit Cartón y Papel de México on all issues related to its water usage and associated concession titles; undertaking due diligence of the environmental and urban development matters related to a hotel development in Quintana Roo; and aiding Triumvirate Environmental obtain various environmental permits, including hazardous waste import authorisations, civil protection approvals and various modifications to the company’s waste transportation permits. The practice is led by a trio of deeply experienced counsel: Enrique Muñoz Guízar advises companies on the identification and obtaining of the environmental permits, licenses, authorisations, and concessions required for the development of infrastructure projects in the water, energy, tourism and industrial sectors; contentious specialist Carlos Fernando Castilla focuses on administrative litigation and dispute resolution, particularly in relation to environmental and regulatory law; while the practice of Paola Hernández Villalvazo (a September 2022 hire from Grupo México’s Americas Mining Corporation) is centred on ESG matters. Further depth is provided by counsel Julia González, who devises strategies as regards regulatory, litigious and risk prevention, as well as handling social impact matters; and senior associate Georgina Zavala, a water law specialist. Former senior Paulina Poo Romero moved in house in February 2023.