Cuatrecasas Adds Tax Partner in Mexico, M&A Partner in Peru

Cuatrecasas has added partners in Mexico and Peru to further build out its tax and M&A capabilities in Latin America.

Tax partner Juan David Mina joins in Mexico City following stints at prestigious Mexican law firms such as Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez and Chevez Ruiz Zamarripa. Mina’s LinkedIn profile shows he most recently worked at KPMG, which he left in April.

Cuatrecasas Mexico partners Marco Antonio de la Peña, Santiago Ferrer and León López said in a statement that Mina will help position the firm in tax and wealth structuring in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

The Spanish law firm now has more than 30 lawyers stationed in Mexico, which is Latin America’s largest economy, offering advice to banks, funds and large corporations.

Demand for assistance with tax matters has skyrocketed in Mexico during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office for a single six-year term in 2018.

The tax authority under López Obrador has pressured several large corporations to pay back taxes, while scrutinizing routine invoices and payments at countless companies.

In Lima, meanwhile, M&A partner Diego Carrión joins from Hernández & Cía., a prestigious local law firm where he spent more than two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile, which also lists experience as an international associate at Sidley Austin in New York.

Aldo Reggiardo, managing director of Cuatrecasas’ Lima office, described Carrión as “without a doubt, one of the best M&A lawyers of his generation.”

Reggiardo added that the hire responds to the growth of Cuatrecasas’ business in Peru, where the firm established an office just over three years ago.

Juan Luis Hernández, managing partner of Hernández & Cía, expressed gratitude for Carrión’s years of effort and dedication to his firm, and wished him the best of luck ahead.

“We hope to meet again on the other side of the table,” Hernández told Law.com International.

In Latin America, Cuatrecasas has offices in four countries, all of which border the Pacific Ocean: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The governments in those four Pacific-facing countries have swung left since the Spanish heavyweight established beachheads in each of them, presenting challenges for the business classes there.

Wealthy residents in these markets have increasingly sought legal advice on tax and investment matters in recent years, while also attempting to offload select assets in their home countries in an effort to diversify risk.