DLA Piper has visibly expanded its presence in the Americas region with the opening of an office in Mexico City staffed by four partners and other personnel drawn from Thompson & Knight’s office there.
Partners Manuel Rajunov and Carlos Valencia are in charge of the new DLA Piper office. Rajunov has been a senior partner at Thompson & Knight since 2004, prior to which he served as managing partner in the international tax services division of Grant Thornton. Valencia has served as Mexican counsel on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and on the debt restructuring of Samtex, Alestra, and other large firms.
Rajunov and Valencia, along with fellow partners Miguel de Erice and Guillermo Uribe, are among 15 staff members recruited from Thompson & Knight’s Mexico City office after a period of negotiations reputed to extend over several months.
Thompson & Knight first opened its Mexico City office in 2005 to take advantage of growing demand for a vast range of practice areas including labor law, intellectual property, telecommunications, cross-border mergers, and natural resources.
Even as DLA Piper expands aggressively, it has lost several lawyers in recent days with the move of six experienced personnel to Seyfarth Shaw (February 13) and three to Davis Wright Tremaine (February 8).