Over the course of many years, The Legal 500 has built up an impressive network of general counsel and other in-house lawyers in Mexico. It has done this on the back of a series of extremely well attended and informative events. The 2024 GC Summit Mexico continued this tradition while going even further by adding an even more impressive group of in-house lawyers to its attendee list. All in all, over 150 of Mexico City’s top legal minds attended the discussions/

The agenda focused on a number of key topics during a time when a general election meant that many were looking to stay abreast of any new challenges that may be forthcoming.

Ritch Mueller kicked off proceedings, with their partners Brenda Rogel Salgado and Ricardo Calderón Mendoza joined by Banco Santander’s head of ESG Javier Perochena and Grupo Coppel’s corporate and financial legal managing director Eva Isabela Frias Castro to discuss sustainable financing for in-house lawyers.

Greenberg Traurig came hot on their heels with a thought-provoking session on current enforcement trends in Mexico. Greenberg’s Víctor Manuel Frías Garcés and Miguel Flores Bernés shared the stage with Claudia Lelo de Larrea, director general for competition procedures at the Federal Telecommunications Institute and Víctor Manuel Meyer Suárez, general director of investigations of absolute monopolistic practices at COFECE to talk though the topic.

After an excellent lunch, which was no surprise given Mexico’s rich culinary tradition, guests returned for the third panel which was hosted by White & Case partners Francisco de Rosenzweig, Carlos Véjar and Elizabeth Gonzalez. Alongside TENARIS’  director of institutional affairs and international commercial matters Jesus Flores, this able panel looked into the legal implications in nearshoring strategies.

The next panel discussion was one that received excellent reviews from attendees. Overseen by Martínez, Algaba, de Haro y Curiel partners Mauricio Mendoza and Diego Gutierrez, the discussion also featured an excellent lineup of in-house counsel: Jessica Mejía, legal director of Afore Sura; Carmen Beatriz Meza, financial and stock market legal manager at FEMSA; and Diego Castañeda, head of litigation at Scotiabank. Their conversation on Electronic Agreements and Promissory Notes in Court was an extremely timely one which led to a useful back-and-forth with those in the audience.

From here, we moved to the energy sphere with subject matter expert Herfried Wöss of Wöss & Partners leading a robust conversation with Braskem Idesa’s Diana Rodriguez Torres and AES Mexico on the subject of the new European supply-chain legislation, CSDD. The conversation extended to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court concerning the energy counter-reform, exploring its effects on regulatory frameworks and business operations in the energy sector.

The final panel, imaginatively titled ‘In and Out-of-Court Restructurings and Out-of-the-Box Alternatives’ harnessed the expertise of three excellent in-house lawyers, Fernando Zapata of Nexxus Capital, José Rafael López Guerrero of Xiaomi and Roberto L. Frias of SANFER, expertly marshalled by Guerra, Hidalgo y Mendoza partner Jesús Ángel Guerra Méndez. They examined the complex world of restructuring strategies in the corporate finance world, giving practical examples and key takeaways throughout.