Pemex is the largest company in Mexico and operates through the whole chain of value of the oil industry, from exploration and production to industrial transformation, logistics and marketing. Explaining his role at the company, Jorge Kim Villatoro says, ‘my role as general counsel is not only to carry out the legal function as in any company. It involves advising the corporate and subsidiary companies and, where applicable, affiliate companies. I carry out the coordination of preventive strategies to avoid judicial, arbitration and administrative actions against Pemex and I also have to monitor the function of legal compliance’.

Despite only joining Pemex in March 2016, Kim has already played a leading role on a number vital company projects. This includes leading on farm-out processes in Trion for US$1.97bn, Cárdenas Mora and Ogarrio for US$166m and US$373m respectively and Santuario whereby Pemex and Petrofac migrated the first exploration and production integral services agreement into an extraction contract executed with the National Hydrocarbons Commission. Internally, Kim has overseen a number of changes such as the design and implementation of Pemex’s new compliance program and the incorporation of a completely new set of rules following Mexico’s latest energy reform law. Explaining this further, Kim says: ‘The legal team has implemented a lot of important changes however; one of the most important changes has been the centralisation of functions within the general counsel’s office. Prior to the energy reform, the legal team was spread across many entities inside Pemex. With the reform we have been consolidated as an operational area with a corporative vision.

Another important change that we are implementing is the Pemex renewal internal control. We make the legal framework that supports all the regulations on compliance. This impacts us positively because we want to be seen abroad as a solid, reliable and internationally competitive company’. Beyond large-scale transactions and internal restructurings, Kim is also credited with his ability to resolve litigations or disputes favourably. To this end, he guided the legal team on the Heerema case to recover 50% percent of Pemex’s expenditure in the relocation and installation of the PP-Ayatsil-A platform. He also helped end a 20-year-long dispute with the company COMMISA, obtaining important precedents after an intense litigation before the Supreme Court of Justice regarding environmental responsibility, which secured Pemex legally from wrongdoing caused by third parties. With such accomplishments achieved in just the last two years, it is clear to see why Kim is a standout candidate in Mexico’s in-house legal market.