Exploring Mexico’s bustling legal market
From lateral movement to major legal deals there are patterns emerging in the Mexican legal community that in many ways mirror its larger neighbor to the north. But there are differences also, particularly cultural influences that make Mexico unique. We take a look from the ground up at what is really happening in the Mexican market and what we see impresses us. Mexico City’s maturing legal market is blossoming with home-grown talent, but there are still challenges to face Mexico City, January 2014 To better understand the legal Market in Mexico and meet with key clients, Legalis Global Director Orsolya Dora Endrefi recently made the 6,434 mile (10,350 kilometer) journey from Budapest to Mexico City. Teaming up on the ground with Legalis Principal Consultant Bente Vaupel, what Endrefi found was an incredibly buoyant market in terms of talent as it relates to private practice and in-house placements. According to Endrefi, Mexican legal talent is extremely well educated, many boasting U.S. LLMs from prestigious universities and foreign work experience. The challenge, she said, is to keep these talented individuals in Mexico. Several domestic and international firms have secondment programs/exchange opportunities with big name firms in the United States. 
Some firms provide financial assistance and scholarships for talented lawyers to study abroad. The return ratio is lower than expected, however, and this poses a long-term risk for keeping top talent in Mexico. Many lawyers prefer to stay in the United States or are looking for a way to return after completing an LLM. That said, it is a highly competitive market with a particular emphasis on private practice. And the Mexico City market has seen several significant lateral moves in recent months, almost to the point of describing some as hostile takeovers. “Lateral movement is a fairly new concept in this market and good lawyers see no boundaries to making bold moves,” Endrefi said. “This also makes for a high level of competition, but more worrisome is the increasing level of turnover that many law firms, both domestic as well as international, are experiencing.” She said the environment puts pressure on hiring partners to make long-term, secure hiring decisions, which is always a risk element. “While seasoned European markets have years of experience fine-tuning lateral hiring criteria, they have somewhat seemingly perfected the art of the lateral hire compared to their Mexican counterparts,” Endrefi said. For example, she said, the legal recruiter concept is new. Historically, hiring has been done by word of mouth recommendations. More often than not, these relationships were not long lived. What’s hot? The main areas for talent are in Real Estate, Finance, M&A, Environmental/Infrastructure, Tax and Energy. For in-house counsel, however, there are different agendas of importance. The key issues for Mexico’s GCs are competitive pricing by external counsel — quality legal service versus cost ratio — and compliance. Compliance is a major aspect of importance to all GCs and legal directors not only in Mexico, but across LATAM. Implementation, training and follow through are major challenges for legal departments across all of LATAM. As part of her trip, Endrefi met with almost all of the domestic and international firms as well as a number of GCs from a variety of industry sectors. “Legalis is extremely positive about the opportunities in the Mexican legal market. We enjoyed two and three-hour lunches with managing partners and appreciated their candid honesty about future plans for their firms,” Endrefi said. From each conversation, she said, there was a glimpse of Mexico’s historic culture and heritage.
“The warmth, honesty and human interaction that is so important in day to day business is a refreshing change to what is often the high-intensity, cut-throat approach of their neighbors to the north,” she said. “I look forward to coming back, doing more business and having some of that outlook on life rub off.”
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