About

Number of years practice:

25+

Principal practice areas:

Mergers and Acquisitions

Bar admissions:

New York, Colombia

Languages spoken:

English, Spanish

As a New York-based M&A partner, Paola Lozano represents a variety of clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, private equity and other corporate matters. Among many others, she has represented Walmart Inc. in its sale of an 80% stake of Walmart Brazil to Advent International; Quala Inc. in the sale to Unilever; Visa Inc. in connection with its equity interest in, and contractual relationship with, Prisma Medios de Pago S.A.; Deutsche Bank AG and its affiliates in connection with its sale of Deutsche Bank Argentina and its proposed sale of Deutsche Bank Mexico, as well as various investment banks, including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, as financial advisors in multibillion-dollar transactions in Latin America. Prior to joining Skadden, Lozano practiced law in Colombia, where she worked on a number of landmark transactions, including representing Organización Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo in connection with its winning bid for the concession contract to provide cellular communications services in Western Colombia.

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

I have more than 25 years of experience working from Skadden’s New York office on complex transactions in Mexico, as well as in the US and other countries. I am an M&A expert, not a generalist. We are not paper pushers; we pride ourselves on partnering with our clients and deeply understanding their needs, goals and issues, to deliver them outstanding results while reducing risk and enhancing upside. We have put together a team of attorneys that have top-level US legal expertise and deal flow and are also deeply familiar with the Mexican legal system and business and regulatory environment. In fact, in addition to being native Spanish speakers, most of my dedicated team and I have dual legal degrees and admissions to practice in the US and in civil law jurisdictions, some including Mexico. That allows us to provide top level counsel to our clients in matters of New York law, while fully understanding the interaction with the local reality, limitations and opportunities. Mexico is a very important market for Skadden and, as co-chair of the Latin America practice, I am committed to continue to dedicate significant time and resources to our Mexican practice.

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

Skadden does not compete with the Mexican firms. We respect them enormously and have very close relationships with all top-rated Mexico based firms that are active in the cross-border market. Because we are not competitors in local law, we can assemble joint teams with the best partner for each case, deal and client, without restrictions or self-interest. The interests of the clients prevail. When clients come to us, they are looking for sophisticated New York law advice. We give them that and allow them to also benefit from us teaming up with the best Mexican counsel for that particular matter. Naturally, we spend a significant amount of time in Mexico if and when our clients desire it. But being based in New York as part of one of the top rated US M&A groups in the world allows us to stay on top of fast and frequent legal developments in case law, legal products, creative features, novel structures and global market trends.

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

Mexico is undergoing a period of some uncertainty that may result in the need for all who have significant business there to quickly react and adapt. Some attorneys that have an opportunistic approach to their interest in Mexico may not have staying power. We are invested for the long-term and have prepared for areas of opportunity. We see opportunities for increased transaction flow on account of attractive valuation, corporate exploration of strategic alternatives, restructuring or refocusing on core businesses, and diversification of risks into other markets. We see some challenges, including on changes of regulators views and practices, uncertainty on some infrastructure projects and volatile capital markets.

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

We expect the use of technology to continue to increase rapidly in Mexico and around the world. Some tools will facilitate and accelerate certain processes related to our transactions. However, given our core business is on high impact, large, complex, cross-border transactions, our expertise cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. You cannot replace senior experienced judgment calls, based on deep knowledge of law and contracts, with data processing tools. But those tools can be helpful in providing rapid, organized sources that are necessary input for our judgment calls and decision making processes.

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

Clients are looking for expert, reliable, trustworthy advice that fulfills their business needs and risk control requirements. At the same time, most have budget and cost management requirements, so they focus on quality of legal work, the actual attention senior attorneys give to their matters and the value proposition between the costs of counsel and the actual benefits obtained from their investment in top counsel. Those benefits that merit the cost include providing true value added to transaction teams and senior executives, enhancing success rates of transaction completion and helping guard their best interests by identifying and providing creative solutions to risks and challenges.