CMS Woodhouse Lorente Ludlow

Energy, Oil & Gas, Electricity, Renewables, Projects, Infrastructure, Project Finance, PPP.

Senior Partner

Derek is a Mexican lawyer specialized in energy, infrastructure and public private partnerships (PPP). He started his professional career in 1992 as part of the Mexican Federal Government, where he spent 2 years in the Energy Ministry and 6 in the newly created Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE). He became the Deputy General Director of Legal Affairs at CRE and then Chief of the Power Reestructuring Unit, working on the legal and regulatory reforms that allowed private participation in the Mexican natural gas and power sectors throughout the 90s.

In 2000 he was recruited by CMS in London, where he advised governments, banks and private companies on the design, financing and development of energy and infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia and America, incluidng the adoption in Mexico of the UK’s PFI in 2004 know as the PPS program.

He came back to Mexico City in 2005 to head the infrastructure practice of a New York based law firm. In 2009 he founded Woodhouse Lorente Ludlow SC, which is now part of CMS, and has been advising the Mexican Federal Government on power and PPP reforms and on pathfinder projects including the first wave of PPS, the Federal Prison Program, the electricity reform of 2013/2014 and the Mayan Train. He has also been advising sponsors, lenders, contractors and project companies in relation to infrastructure projects typically funded on a project finance basis in a variety of sectors including power, roads, health, transportation, education, custodial and national defence.

Spanish, English.

Escuela Libre de Derecho, Mexico City, Law Degree, 1988 – 1996 George Washington University, International Law Institute, Washington D.C., United States, Postgraduate Studies, Introduction to the United States Legal System, 1997 Harvard University, Center for International Development, Boston, Massachussets, United States, Postgraduate Studies, International Program on Privatization, Regulations and Corporate Governance, 1999.