Leading research for this remarkable edition of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Mexico 2022 was a great honour. It was characterized by a high level of engagement, a variety of extensive interviews and an opportunity to identify and liaise with the leading counsel in Mexico. I am certainly appreciative of the time spared by these brilliant in-house lawyers to share their plans for their organizations, their challenges over the past few years and their successes.

Quite impressively, most lawyers in this esteemed publication emphasized that this was a time of innovation, mostly due to the unprecedented, related issues of the pandemic. In the words of Carlos Facha, the general counsel of IDEAL, ‘as an in-house legal team, we are always trying to find recent technology and products that can help ease the management workload. This way, the team can focus on providing excellent service to all the company’s areas.’

The general counsel of Mars Petcare, Victor Manuel Gutiérrez Cubría echoes this sentiment by acknowledging that ‘the next generation of in-house counsel must learn how to think in different ways, however, not simply approaching any problems linearly as this will help their companies to potential innovation effectively.’ Counsel in Mexico are excited by the prospects of legal technology helping their everyday work and assisting the path of innovation they are charting.

The legal, compliance and external affairs director of Samsung Electronics Mexico, Daniel Antonio Perez Cirera Santacruz says that his legal team moved from, ‘30% to 98% of agreements being executed digitally. It has been one of the great successes of the legal department, and I do not see things returning to the way they were before.’ A significant milestone for business in Mexico is that general counsel of leading organisations have shown their ability to navigate their companies in challenging times due to their resilience and adaptability.

Going forward, Mexico’s top lawyers are resigned to the fact that, ‘the new work dynamic is not transitory but a new normal which is more complex, dynamic, and full of possibilities. The risk of loss of productivity, engagement and motivation should be managed by custom approaches depending on the company, function, role, and specific circumstances of everyone’, as put by deputy general counsel of Industrias Peñoles, Gustavo Alarcon.

Against the arduous backdrop of the pandemic, general counsel who also double as managers of teams share how much flexibility was needed to lead their teams and organizations. Reported by the corporate legal director of AGP Group; Álvaro Gómez-Godoy, ‘Remote working was another aspect that also impacted the team…I was dedicated to leading my team through this by advising them on how to manage their calendars and energy intelligently. A mismanagement of our time and calendars could lead to other implications such as mental health issues and threats to our work-life balance.’

No challenge seemed too tough for counsel in this edition as they look towards the development of their role and the maintenance of the services they provide to their organisations. Some of the questions we asked counsel were about which attributes they thought were needed for roles of their magnitude. Mariana Páez Robles Martínez, senior legal director of American Tower, concisely says ‘broadly speaking, the greatest lesson of these times has been resilience and flexibility. These are qualities of utmost importance in an ever-changing and fast developing industry, solidified especially through this time’.

I would like to congratulate all the successful in-house lawyers for this edition, who join a global community of Powerlisters in several jurisdictions worldwide! It was a pleasure to speak with you all.

Melissa Yebisi | Researcher | GC Powerlist Series

Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez is honoured to sponsor this edition of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Mexico. We have had the privilege of supporting this event for four consecutive years until 2020, and this 2022 edition gives us particular joy as we are once again able to gather in person.

We should rejoice at the possibility of meeting up with friends and colleagues to “talk shop” and share anecdotes and experiences during these complex times. What we have gone through as a profession has not been a “walk in the park”, and all humility aside, lawyers deserve to take a bow for the resilience, adaptability and steadfastness shown since the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Overnight, we had to adapt to a completely new way of operating whilst remaining responsive to the emerging and ever-changing needs of our clients and constituencies. Almost three years have passed since the advent of the first lockdown and we are convinced the marks for the legal profession are high. You should all feel proud of what you have accomplished leading your teams and supporting your various stakeholders during such a turbulent and uncertain period. From all of us at Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez, we congratulate you.

As we meet this early Autumn 2022, we are compelled to discuss operational topics such as hybrid work, career development, diversity and inclusion, mental health and general wellness, training, and legal tech (its realities and promises), as well as substantive law/practice themes such as ESG and the New Economy. The emergence of many such topics precedes the pandemic, but the strategic need and urgency to address them is heightened and will no doubt transform the future of our profession – every day it seems the future is upon at a faster pace.

In addition to discussing the referred to topics, we request that you also focus on three critical areas in which our legal profession has a preeminent role and responsibility: Rule of Law, Diversity & Inclusion and Pro Bono. The state of global and domestics politics and democracy, and the uneven playing field and grave disparities that exist in the spread of wealth, opportunity and wellbeing, impose upon our legal profession the duty to actively promote initiatives that foster and strengthen the Rule of Law, level the playing field for all and provide access to legal services and representation to those most in need but who are unable to afford it. A genuine and on-going commitment of the legal profession to those causes is transformational and a pillar for development of our societies.

As we meet anew in Mexico, we invite all of you to discuss these topics and whatever other issues you believe are relevant. Mostly, however, on this occasion we invite you to have a good time chatting and enjoying the company of esteemed colleagues and friends.

Sincerely,

Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez