Adrián del Paso
Partner
Adrián is a Founder and Partner at Ibarra del Paso Gallego, where he specializes in Environmental Law, Life Sciences, Administrative and Regulatory Law.
Profile
Adrián is admitted to practice law in Mexico since 2004. For over eighteen years he has represented international and domestic companies from a wide range of sectors (generally comprising industrial and commercial, such as pharmaceutical, chemical, agrochemical, food and beverage, metallurgic, infrastructure, hospitality and real estate, among others) on environmental matters, including general transactional and day to day advice, permitting and dispute resolution support on environmental regulations at the federal, state and municipal levels on environmental impact, natural protected areas, ecological ordainment, forestry land use, water, waste, contaminated sites, air and noise emissions, among others. As also a member of the Transactional Real Estate Practice of the Firm, his experience additionally comprises legal due diligence processes and negotiation of liabilities in the transfer (acquisition, disposal or affectation for development) of large real estate portfolios.
He also Co-Chairs the Life Sciences practice of the Firm, where he provides legal advice to all regulated industries and a wide range of companies and Non-for-Profit Organizations under a health stance in Mexico, including Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Medical Devices, Healthcare, Chemicals, Agrochemicals, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Food and Beverage, Personal Care, Tobacco, Cosmetics and the incipiently regulated Cannabis industry. Aside from his general legal regulatory and sanitary advice, he actively participates in matters entailing permitting with the Ministry of Health (mainly through the Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks or COFEPRIS) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (including several internal or deconcentrated entities) and complex entanglements of underlying legal requirements, both in a transactional context (mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, corporate reorganizations and strategic projects) as well as in the development of new lines of businesses.
Additionally, as an experienced litigator in administrative and regulatory matters at the federal and local levels, he has successfully represented clients in the defense and enforcement of important interests associated with key authorizations for the operation and commercialization of different businesses on Environmental and Life Sciences matters.
Trajectory
Before founding the Firm, Adrián worked in Barrera, Siqueiros y Torres Landa -Currently Hogan Lovells Mexico- (2009-2011), Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez (2007-2009) and Burguete, Célis y Asociados (2004-2005).
Some of the companies that Adrián has represented in relevant matters and transactions are the following:
Environmental
- Hilton Grand Vacations Inc., on due diligence and related transactional work and advice in the context of the Mexican portion of a USD$1.4 billion multinational M&A transaction comprising the acquisition of USA’s timeshare company Diamond Resorts International, Inc.
- The Chemours Company, on the environmental permitting aspects of the Mexican portion of a USD $521 million multinational M&A transaction entailing the sale of client’s Mining Solutions business to Draslovka Holding A.S., a Czech private company specializing on chemicals.
- Unilever, on general legal environmental advice and support pertaining to the operations of all its industrial facilities and operations throughout Mexico.
- Various groups of high-net-worth individuals, on the legal environmental advice, design and implementation of thorough environmental permitting strategies for several real estate projects in Valle de Bravo, a Natural Protected Area of Federal jurisdiction close to Mexico City.
- Veolia, on an environmental-related constitutional/ human rights trial filed against a recent resolution issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and published by the Electricity Federal Commission (CFE) for the calculation of electric cogeneration fees in Mexico.
Life Sciences
- A multinational healthcare/medical devices company, on general Life Sciences, Data Privacy and regulatory advice for the implementation of Artificial Intelligence projects and strategies in Mexico.
- Be the Match /National Marrow Donor Program, on continuous legal assistance and advice to the client as of inception of its Mexican subsidiary and branch, a USA based non-profit organization that helps patients with blood cancers to connect with bone marrow donors.
- International Flavors & Fragances, Inc, on regulatory strategic advice as a result of its recent global merger with DuPont’s agrochemical business, particularly on aspects pertaining to the health governmental regulator in Mexico (COFEPRIS).
- Neolpharma, on general contractual work related to the commercialization and distribution of pharmaceutical products in Mexico.
- Pfizer, on general legal Life Sciences advice and support in connection with the operations of its Mexican business.
Teaching and Publications
Adrián is an active panelist in national and international fora on his areas of expertise. In addition, he is a Professor of Environmental Law of the Real Estate Post-Graduate Degrees at ITAM and the Urban Land Institute.
He has co-authored various international publications on his areas of expertise. One of the most recent is the following: https://latinlawyer.com/jurisdiction/1003256/mexico
Credentials
Adrián obtained his Law degree (JD/LL.B equivalent) from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) in 2004. As part of his bachelor studies, he studied a year abroad in 2002 in a Student Exchange Program at Universitat de València (Spain). In 2006, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Environmental Policy and Management from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
He obtained a post-graduate degree diploma in Environmental Law and Natural Resources from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in 2005 and a post-graduate degree diploma in Real Estate and Tourism Law from the same institution in 2009.
In 2014, Adrián obtained an additional post-graduate degree diploma in Sanitary Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Industry from the Institute of Education and Advisory on Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences (INEDUFARM).
He completed the D-1 Top Management Program from IPADE Business School in 2016.
As part of his recent international and US training, in 2018 Adrián completed the Leading Professional Service Firms Program at Harvard Business School and in 2019 he obtained an LL.M. in Business Law from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
In 2020, Adrián became a member of the first generation of Harvard Law School’s Executive Education “Smart Collaboration” Master Class, lectured by Heidi K. Gardner.
In 2021 Adrián completed the Sustainable Finance and ESG Investing Program at NYU Stern School of Business.
LANGUAGES
Adrián is a Spanish native speaker and is fluent in English and versant in Portuguese.