About

The legal team at Cinépolis, the Mexican chain of movie theatres, is made up of 22 lawyers or lawyers-to-be and three administrative positions. The team is led by general counsel Pablo Aguilar Albo who is a strong supporter of diversity and individual development within his team. To assist with individual development, Albo recently created a deputy general counsel position, with focus on the international operations. Amongst the carefully selected individuals in the team, a few members stand out as top performers: Marisol Palomares, deputy general counsel for international matters, who joined the team in this 2016 and has been able to impact in all corporate matters of international operations and certain strategic transactions acquisitions in Central America; Edmundo Rivero, litigation and permits manager, who has been crucial for winning very important disputes and also to keep fighting corruption in operations in Mexico; and David Viveros who is on the route to becoming one of the team’s key players. The team is described by Albo as ‘very hands-on’ and involved in all strategic transactions including M&A and syndicated credit agreements. The team has had a large impact on the expansion of the company via acquisitions in foreign territories in Spain, India, Chile, the US and Brazil. The team has also proved vital for the institutionalisation of the company in compliance matters, such as anti-money laundering, and approach to personal data. Albo describes his team as ‘hard working, committed and very friendly, and a real team. I’m very proud of our team and very grateful to all the members. I truly believe we have one of the most talented in-house legal teams in Mexico’. The quality of the Cinépolis team is reinforced by the high levels of interaction it has with the business. Since the creation of the role, there has been a lot of interaction between the deputy general counsel for international matters, team managers and the company’s senior management. Amongst some of their most notable recent achievements the team won a very prestigious litigation this year regarding the documentary “Presunto Culpable” (“Presumed Guilty”). This was a case where ‘very sensitive human rights issues were involved… so it was resolved by Mexico’s highest Supreme Court’. The team in 2016 were very active in M&A transactions, particularly in India and the US and went on to acquire the company’s first cinema in Manhattan.