Mexico City. Photo: Shutterstock.com

A Baker McKenzie senior partner has broken off from the global firm to form a boutique in Mexico City focused on transactional law, M&A and telecom.

Carlos Valencia founded Valencia Consulting in January, bringing on former in-house counsel for AT&T Mexico, Karina Duyich, and a handful of associates.

At Baker McKenzie, Valencia advised publicly traded and private domestic and transnational companies on M&A, foreign investment, joint ventures, corporate and securities, licensing and distribution agreements. He also represented clients in antitrust, foreign investment and regulated industries. He also participated in different capacities in four of the five most relevant cross-border restructuring processes since the promulgation of the Mexican Reorganizations Law (Ley de Concursos Mercantiles) and has served as a mediator and counsel in mediation processes.

Valencia told Law.com International that the boutique kicked off with several projects, including advising a carrier on the sale of non-essential assets, helping an information security company select a strategic partner, and assisting a consumer products manufacturer with an industrial property investment in central Mexico.

"We're seeing more activity than we expected in the first quarter," Valencia said.

Like many lawyers in Mexico, Valencia and his team have transitioned to home offices to reduce possible contagion of COVID-19. Mexico had 118 confirmed cases of the new virus as of Wednesday.

The real estate investment that Valencia is working toward in central Mexico is critical, he said, as the end-product is destined for export. "Without a doubt, it's very important that this project initiate as soon as possible," he said, declining to go into further detail.

Some investments and projects in Mexico have been put on hold amid uncertainty about the global spread of the new coronavirus, combined with the Mexican peso's fast depreciation against the U.S. dollar.

As of Wednesday, the Mexican peso had lost 18% of its value against the U.S. dollar in March.

Valencia said this added uncertainty might require new clients to pay retainers, but that existing clients with whom he has done business for many years have always paid on time.

He's optimistic that business activity will pick up by the third quarter, at the latest, "when we see the light at the end of the tunnel."