About

Number of years practice:

20+

Principal practice areas:

Banking and Capital Markets

Bar admissions:

New York, Mexico

Languages spoken:

English, Spanish

Alejandro González Lazzeri plays a major role in the firm’s representation of investment banks, commercial banks and other financial institutions, strategic investors and corporations on a range of financing transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean, including syndicated loans, acquisition financings, leveraged buyouts, bridge loans, asset-based loans, project financings, and debt and equity securities offerings in the international capital markets.

Recent banking representations include:

• Credit Suisse and BBVA Bancomer, as lenders of a $1.55bn senior bridge facility to GMexico Transportes a subsidiary of Grupo México to acquire Florida East Coast Holdings Corporation from Fortress Investment Group LLC;
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch as lead arranger and the lenders in a $1.1bn secured syndicated term loan facility to Minera Frisco to finance the acquisition of AuRico Gold México, S.A. de C.V. from AuRico Gold Inc.;
• Bank of America and JPMorgan as joint lead arrangers of a $1bn revolving credit facility to Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation;

What differentiates your Mexico-facing practice from those of your US competitors and peers?

We take pride in the quality of our work, the involvement of the members of our team in every single transaction and our unparalleled relationships with top Mexican law firms. We craft tailor-made solutions for our clients. The size of our team allows us to offer outstanding services consistently. We never compromise quality. For us, every transaction is a challenge. Even if it is a repeated deal we always want to obtain the best for our clients. The significant flow of transactions per attorney allows us to keep our team updates in recent trends and go that extra mile to propose a value solution for our clients. Our team members have experience practicing in top law firms in Mexico and have managed to keep nurturing relationships with the most relevant firms in the country.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of advising Mexico-based clients from an office in the United States?

One of our main challenges is to transform single engagements into long-term relationships. In Mexico, as in most of the other countries in Latin America, we need to make an extra effort to obtain and maintain the loyalty of our clients. Traditionally, in Mexico, counsel is a proxy for trust. Clients put their assets in our hands, so we help them to take care of them and make them grow. That involves more than a professional relationship. Developing that type of relationship remotely takes more time. That is why each single transaction is an opportunity to exceed the expectations of our clients. Certainly, distance also has advantages. Limited encounters in person and being based abroad helps in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. That is why, for us, communication is of paramount importance. For communication we don’t mean the language only, but to understand the culture.

What changes in the commercial and/or legal market do you anticipate in the 12 months ahead in Mexico?

While the pipeline for the next 12 months continues to be strong for both capital markets and banking transactions, we expect to see a Mexican government more settled and confident, which we expect will provide positive signals to the market. Outcome of presidential elections in the US can be either positive or maintain the status quo which in hindsight has not significantly affected business relationships between Mexico and the US despite the moments of tension created by the current administrations. We expect to see more injection of money into the economy on top of the prospective refinancing transactions as maturities of a large group of corporates and sovereigns are around the corner.

What influence will legal technology have on US/Mexico working practices in the future?

The same influence that technology has had and continues to have: assisting us with running processes eficiently and reducing the execution time, which is expected to increase transactions in volume.

What is your perception of in-house counsel’s priorities in terms of client service when working with US-based law firms?

We cannot forget that we are service providers. As such our main role is to ease the life of our clients: help them. Through the years we have realized that the best way to achieve this is by knowing our client and anticipating to its needs. Clients value a counsel that is proactive. We are in a market environment in which competition has increased (which is positive) but has opened the door to less quality propositions or players with less experience. Everyone can push papers but not everyone can add value. Bring our experience to the table, convey clear messages in terms of risks and opportunities and help our clients navigate through the transaction seamlessly – these are the priorities of our clients.