About

Number of years practice: 17 Principal practice areas: M&A, corporate, finance and investment management, private equity, white collar litigation and government investigations Bar admissions: Mexico, New York, Texas Languages spoken: English and Spanish

Bilingual in English and Spanish and dual qualified in the US and Texas, Humberto Padilla’s broad practice ranges from day-to-day operational, corporate and regulatory matters to the most complex M&A and finance mandates while also taking in employment-related issues, anti-corruption, white-collar litigation and government investigations. His recent mandates include acting on behalf of Prudential Financial (and other institutional investors) with regard to the purchase of $60m in secured notes from major Mexican clothing manufacturer Siete Legua; assisting both US and Canadian institutional investors with a $300m private notes placement by Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE); and subsequently representing Morgan Stanley and HSBC, as lead managers, on a $375m Reg S Eurobond offering by the same issuer with a listing on The Luxembourg Stock Exchange. In other matters he has advised both companies and private equity firms on the establishment of joint ventures and international banks on matters such as term loans, particularly those requiring highly-negotiated limited guarantees due to elevated corruption risks. A frequent speaker at conferences and other industry forums, he has authored various white papers on legal developments in Mexico, notably ‘Compliance as a tool for avoiding enforcement action In Mexico and Latin America’, and ‘Mexico and Colombia: Anticorruption Legislation and Trends’. Previously, Padilla worked at one of the leading law firms in Mexico City and served as in-house counsel to subsidiaries of US banks in Mexico, where he was responsible for day-to-day legal matters, including overview of regulatory and transactional legal issues, gaining experience in all types of cross-border financing.