Vera & Carvajal: Derecho • Ambiente • Comunidad

Legal

V&C is a Mexico-based environmental law firm with over 20 years experience.
We have built our practice on building and maintaining a solid, confidential relationship with each client. From the beginning we listen to the client. We make the effort to understand the client’s goals and expectations. We learn the context. We grasp the dynamics. We lay the groundwork for trust and effective communication. Then we tailor the scope of legal services and a fee agreement that suits the client. Periodically throughout our representation, we seek client feedback so we may address any concerns the client may have.

Our success in the field led ACQ Finance to name V&C the best environmental firm in Latin America for 2008 and 2009. Our clients trust us as the go-to experts on any aspect of Mexican environmental policy and regulation.

As the complexity of environmental practice has grown, we have deepened our insight into how our clients can use the legal framework to their best advantage. As the climate for business in Mexico changes, we have broadened the scope of our legal analysis. The environmental component may be but one of many in a client’s business plan, so we work with the client to offer advice and representation consistent with the context in which the client operates.

We find this is especially crucial in serving a client for whom doing business in Mexico presents special challenges. We focus on our client’s overall goals in context. We steer the client’s representatives through the legal maze with practical guidance on current and evolving enforcement practices so that, together, we reach the best solution.

 
 

 EnviroSense

V&C provides comprehensive solutions. In environmental matters, comprehensive solutions cover not only legal issues but also technical issues. Our strategic environmental consulting services include analyzing and documenting factual evidence, as well as applicable law.

What can the client expect? If our client’s project involves a new development site, for example, the client can rely upon an experienced environmental engineer to assess the technical facts that underly a determination of the best site. They perform the Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessment. Should a project require ongoing troubleshooting, the client can count on us for hands-on support throughout the process. If our client comes to us for a litigation-risk report before an acquisition, we base our due diligence analysis on a thorough legal review coupled with our own technical review. Our experts are right there to corroborate the technical file. If a dispute arises, we readily master applicable law and marshal the evidence to bolster the client’s case.
We formed EnviroSense to serve clients in just such situations.

In offering these strategic environmental consulting services, we can back up our legal services with any scientific analysis the client requires. Having worked in tandem before, the client’s lawyer and the technical expert know how to coordinate well in giving the client efficient, time-saving services. No other law firm in Mexico provides this level of quality, integrated services.

 
 
 

Training

As environmental law has developed in Mexico over the last twenty years, the need for trained environmental specialists has grown as well. In keeping with its core mission, V&C maintains a long-term commitment to using our experience and expertise to address that need.
This area of the law developed quickly at first. Following the initial excitement over a spanking new federal regulatory framework, we have seen smaller bursts of state  and local regulation. Keeping up with environmental law reforms and compliance standards has presented challenges for those doing business in Mexico.
We offer training programs for businesses, law firms, environmental consultants, environmental service providers, as well as for public-sector employees and nongovernmental organizations. Our approach is both holistic and practical. Our goal is to give each participant the tools necessary for adopting an informed strategy for handling environmental regulation.
If you are interested in one of the training program topics listed below, please contact us so we may design a program for your organization.

Typical clients are in-house advisors for:

• Infrastructure projects
• Energy projects
• Communications
• Mining
• Tourism
• Real estate development

Training programs include:

• Environmental impact assessment
• Land use
• Protected areas
• Urban development
• Hazardous materials
• Waste disposal

 Decision Escope

Even the most sophisticated legal framework may be insufficient to guarantee the success of a large project in Mexico. We find stumbling blocks to success in large projects can arise not from a failure to comply with applicable regulation. They often arise from a failure in business-planning to take into account the impact on all stakeholders in the affected community—a failure to anticipate and manage facts on the ground.

As a proven research and analysis technique, Decision Scope meets the need to manage the risk of potential conflict, such as disruptive social resistance to the changes the client’s business brings to a community. We provide the client the insights into the social context that lead to effective problem-solving and lasting settlements. Of the business and government clients that have used Decision Scope, each has reported 100% satisfaction.

The V&C team works with the client to design a Systemic Perception Analysis (SPA) strategy to gauge public acceptance or resistance to a project and to achieve comprehensive solutions to complex problems. The team stands with the client in any project or program that the public may misperceive as threatening. We assist the client to thwart or diffuse tension through consensus-building. We strengthen the decision-making process and to reduce uncertainties through transparent methodologies that are inclusive, documentable, and easily-implemented. The client saves time and money by creating an effective shield against potential risks.