Cacheaux, Cavazos & Newton (CCN), an international law firm with offices in Texas and Mexico, announced the launch of its Latin America practice, along with the addition of Jose Baron as ‘of counsel’.
The Latin America practice area is an international platform that coordinates the firm’s legal capabilities across various practice areas and jurisdictions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Companies expanding beyond Mexico often have to manage multiple law firms and advisors, as well as navigate differing approaches in each country. The practice area is designed to replace this fragmentation with a single point of coordination and accountability, staffed by lawyers who understand both the U.S. corporate environment and the regulatory realities of the region. It works both ways: supporting U.S. companies establishing or expanding operations in Latin America and Latin American companies entering the U.S. market.
From the firm’s offices in Mexico and Texas, and supported by Primerus’ global network and a carefully selected group of local lawyers, tax advisors, and accounting firms throughout the region, the practice advises on the structuring and execution of cross-border transactions, the tax, corporate, and regulatory aspects of regional operations, and the management of disputes with tax and administrative authorities in multiple jurisdictions. Its lawyers have led cases in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Brazil, and the Southern Cone, and have extensive experience coordinating external legal counsel and Big Four firms to develop a unified and coherent strategy.
The area expands the firm’s established strengths to matters of regional scope, in several areas:
Business Structuring: This area supports U.S. companies establishing or expanding operations in Latin America and Latin American companies entering the U.S. market. It also assists clients reassessing where to produce, assemble, and distribute, providing coordinated advice on the corporate, tax, customs, labor, and regulatory implications of operating in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central America, and South America—including maquiladora operations and those under the IMMEX program—so that location decisions are made with a comprehensive understanding of their legal and tax consequences.
Strategic Tax and Business Advice: Coordinated regional advice on the tax, corporate, and regulatory implications of cross-border operations in Latin America, including regional holding and trading company structures, so that each decision made in one jurisdiction is assessed against its consequences in the others.
Support in mergers and acquisitions: The area advises on structuring, due diligence, negotiation, post-closing integration and rationalization of entities when the target companies or assets are located in more than one Latin American country.
Tax Litigation: This practice serves companies that are increasingly relying on third parties to manage their tax disputes outside the United States. Its attorneys handle audits, administrative proceedings, and litigation in multiple jurisdictions, paying particular attention to a recurring challenge for clients: translating the evolution of a foreign proceeding into its effects on the group’s financial statements and provisions. A coordinated regional approach allows clients to track their exposure across countries consistently, rather than having to reconcile inconsistent reports from numerous independent advisors.
Financial and Fintech: specialized advice in treasury restructuring, finance and fintech in Mexico, Brazil and the rest of Latin America.
Referrals and billing for multi-jurisdictional services are coordinated through a single point of contact at the firm’s San Antonio office, ensuring the client maintains a single relationship and receives a single invoice instead of multiple ones. This practice does not provide U.S. federal estate and gift tax planning services or U.S. state and local tax planning services.
“The idea that Latin America is a single market with a single set of rules has never matched my experience. When we founded CCN in 1994, a client’s regional strategy was typically, in essence, a strategy for Mexico. Today, that same client might be acquiring a company in Colombia, moving production to Puerto Rico, and defending a tax ruling in Brazil, often within the same quarter. The Latin America practice exists so that all of that work has a single point of contact, rather than four, and Jose has spent 20 years tackling precisely that problem from the client’s perspective,” said Joseph Newton, founding partner of CCN.
“For 20 years, I was on the other side of this relationship: I was the person who had to explain to a regional council why a tax determination in one country had altered the provision in another, while simultaneously coordinating advisors in 15 jurisdictions that had never spoken to each other. Bridging that gap is what led me to CCN. Companies are rethinking where they manufacture and where they hold assets in this region at a pace I haven’t seen in my entire career, while tax authorities in Latin America are intensifying their audits. Very few firms can advise on both issues simultaneously, and my goal is for this area to be one of them,” said Jose Baron, of counsel at CCN.
Baron leads the area along with Felipe Chapula Almaraz, partner in Mexico City, and Miriam Name, partner in San Antonio and Mexico City.
