About

Since being founded in 1956 as a family company, Grupo Idesa has established itself as a one of the biggest petrochemicals companies in Latin America. Karla Baez Elizondo, the company’s first general counsel, began structuring the legal department when she joined in 2015 in addition to working on matters relating to the opening of a complex in the state of Veracruz for the production of polyethylene, the largest private petrochemical facility in Mexico. Since then the department has established an internal policy to structure communication lines with the company’s various business units to allow the legal function to interact easily with the business. To make further efficiency gains, the team also developed standard document templates for non-disclosure agreements and an internal documents systems for easy access to legal information relating to the company. Resulting in a legal spend reduction of over 60%, Baez Elizondo and her colleague Ricardo Mendoza, a junior lawyer, have shifted internal perceptions ‘of how legal matters are visualised’. In 2015, Baez Elizondo assisted on legal matters relating to the creation of a 50-50 joint venture between Grupo Idesa and International Frontier Resources Corporation (IFR) to bid for government tenders on onshore projects, and as of February 2017 are in an advanced position to secure the third tender of round two of Mexico’s oil and gas energy reform. For what promises to be an active time for the company, the team is currently working on forming further joint ventures, acquisitions, increasing the capital for the company and financing projects. Baez Elizondo highlights the lack of lawsuits against Grupo Idesa as another example of the legal function’s success in embedding itself smoothly into the business.