About

Headquartered in France, Faurecia Mexico is ideally located to support the extensive car manufacturing industry in the Latin American powerhouse. It is one of the largest automobile parts producers in the world, with employee numbers of almost 100,000 in 2014. Due to the importance of the company’s operations in Mexico, the decision was made to establish a local legal team in the country in 2014, which has grown and developed substantially since. Crucially, they have ’created a legal culture in Faurecia Mexico, which has allowed [them] to become a true business partner to the leadership and business groups’, says general counsel Leonardo Medellin Camarena. In terms of individual cases, the team has ‘been working intensively on real estate’ matters, helping the company to expand in Mexico. The team has been involved ‘in the negotiations of five new sites, a HQ office in Puebla, plus important expansions in the San Luis Potosí, Querétaro and Silao facilities’. Camarena outlines the company’s impressive growth: ‘Faurecia has almost doubled its operations in Mexico since 2010, and our headcount has tripled in the past seven years, so facing this growth from a legal perspective is a real challenge’. Camarena is optimistic about the legal team’s future and is confident of their abilities to provide ‘real time support, with a business-oriented mind-set where we are finding solutions to make things happen, rather than blocking initiatives’. He is also pleased with the talent available within the team, singling out junior lawyer Brenda Vivanco, whom he praises for her seamless combination of legal skills.