About

El Palacio de Hierro is an important luxury department store chain in Mexico, with a 130 year history. The in-house legal team has led the reinvigoration of this historic business through the leadership of its general counsel, Juan Manuel González Hernández, who having previously led legal teams at Unilever and Walmart brought staunch retail experience to the management of the team. The legal team is split into two areas in order to handle the corporate part of the business without neglecting the commercial operation, which has demanded new internal supporters with experience, expertise and specific knowledge, as well as contacting the most significant external advisors in accordance to its needs and business plans. The corporate functions of the legal team demand broad knowledge on tax, stock-market, financial, real estate, contractual, intellectual property, antitrust and M&A matters as well as compliance and financial governance matters. A nominator has highlighted that ‘the main features of the legal department of El Palacio de Hierro consist in a clear standpoint of the importance of the clients: those who attend its stores and warehouses as well as its several internal clients who seek legal counsel support to make things happen. Moreover, the legal department has [prioritised] acting preventively over reactively, aiming at a more agile and efficient operation of the business’.