Greenberg Traurig launched a labor and employment practice in Mexico City with the addition of a debauched legal team from Holland & Knight.
The practice will be led by Leslie Palma, who joins the firm as a shareholder, and Marité Villanueva, who joined the firm in October as counsel. Palma left Holland & Knight’s Mexico office with six partners. Villanueva came from Lottus Education, where she was an in-house attorney overseeing human resources and labor issues.
Leslie Palma
The addition of the Mexico City labor and employment team comes at a time when Mexico’s labor market has weathered major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent changes in laws labor federations.
Palma brings more than 20 years of experience advising major international and Mexican corporate clients on employment matters, including individual and collective bargaining issues, executive compensation, labor-management relations, job cuts. headcount and other employee changes.
Maria Villanueva
Villanueva has helped corporate teams manage strategic layoffs, lawsuits, contingency plans to prevent labor liability, and union negotiations. She has also helped analyze employee structures to create workplace efficiencies in merger and acquisition projects and helped employers design human resources processes.
“Since our founding in Mexico more than 10 years ago, our office has evolved and grown to meet client demand,” said José Raz Guzmán, office managing shareholder and co-chair of the Latin America practice of cabinet, in a press release. “Adding a strong team of experienced labor, employment, benefits and compensation attorneys is a natural progression for our growth.”
Greenberg Executive Chairman Richard A. Rosenbaum said the new practice in Mexico City is part of the firm’s global strategy to meet and exceed clients’ needs and demands for high-level legal talent on a increasingly connected international market. The firm employs 2,300 lawyers in 40 locations.
“It’s with talent like this that, as a united company, we’ve achieved seven years of record-breaking revenue without mergers and without sacrificing our unique culture of collaboration,” Rosenbaum added.
The rollout of labor and employment practices in Mexico City follows recent hires of entire teams by Greenberg in Warsaw and London.
Holland & Knight did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the departure of Palma and his team.
The six partners joining Greenberg are: Karla Alejandra Peña Copka, Alma Isabel Díaz Cano, Jorge Arturo Andazola Martínez, Claudia Elsa Gonzalez Ramirez, Victor Adrián Reyes Tafoya and José Alberto Ortiz Pérez.
