Yuriria Galicia

Local Partner, Mexico City

Biography

“Yuriria Galicia has great technical skills, and is very good at always keeping us informed.”
Chambers Latin America, 2023

Overview

Yuriria's practice focuses on constitutional, administrative, commercial litigation matters and regulatory consultation, including, among other areas, telecommunications, energy, public procurement and antitrust; she also has experience in international arbitration and corporate law. With more than a decade at White & Case, Yuriria has advised some of the most important players in the energy, telecommunications, transport as well as various financial and governmental entities.

Prior to joining White & Case in 2011, Yuriria worked at a prestigious firm in Mexico City where she acquired corporate experience. Yuriria also worked at a boutique litigation firm.

Yuriria's work include several high-impact and high-importance cases before Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice, as well as by the specialized courts in the field of economic competition and telecommunications. Noteworthy in her experience are achievements with novel injunctions and judgments in amparo trials in which legal issues, such as legitimate interest, amparos' collective rights and diffuse rights were analyzed.

Recent matters on which she has worked include representation of one of the most important mining corporations and successful advice to the most important tech company in ride-hailing services and one of the leading manufacturer and seller of cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products against prohibitions and burdensome regulations to their respective activities.

She has also worked in different pro bono matters, which include aiding NGOs, such as Aprender Primero, part of Mexicanos Primero Museo Appleseed México, Make-a-Wish and other organizations like Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) and SOMA.

 

Bars and Courts
Authorized to practice law in Mexico
Education
Attorney at Law (Abogada)
Escuela Libre de Derecho
Languages
English
Spanish

Experience

Significant recent experience includes:

Several energy companies (approximately 50 percent of the capacity of privately owned generation plants) in various constitutional appeals filed against the reform of the Electricity Industry Law;

The defense of one of the leading manufacturer and seller of cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products, such as vapor products against the Executive's Decrees and a Federal Law that ban imports and exports of END, ENDDS and THPs, commonly known as vaping and tobacco heating products. White & Case was the first to secure an injunction that allowed our client to import and export vapor products and market them once again;

Representation of the tech giant that provides ride-hailing services, food delivery, and freight transport in several amparo proceedings against laws and regulations that limit the activity or impose burdensome requirements for these type of companies and services;

Representation of one of the main mobile operators in Mexico against the rulings of the telecommunications regulator to determine interconnection rates with other providers of telecommunication services;

Active participant in obtaining an amparo action against a ruling of the Ministry of Communications and Transport, which in 2008 determined interconnection rates for call termination in the mobile network of Grupo Telefónica under the scheme El que Llama Paga Local or EQLLP. In this litigation, the Supreme Court of Justice decided to vacate this ruling, concluding the Ministry of Communications and Transport does not have the authority both to resolve a writ of review filed against a resolution of the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), and to determine the mobile termination rates that cellular carriers charge telecommunication companies;

Representation of one of the main participants in the telecommunications sector against the granting of concession titles to exploit and operate the 2.5 GHz frequency band, which is one of the most appreciated radio spectrum frequency bands to provide Fourth Generation Services such as "WiMAX" and LTE (Long Term Evolution Mobile technology);

Representation of a concessionaire of rail services in the country against several acts of the Ministry of Communications and Transport, its main competitors and debtors;

Member of the team that represented various companies, such as Boeing Capital Corporation and Engine Lease Finance Corporation as major creditors in the most complex bankruptcy in Mexico: Compañia Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico's first and biggest airline, and its simultaneous ancillary proceeding before the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, involving more than US$1 billion in debt;

Representation of one of the main participants in the poultry industry against a ruling of the Federal Antitrust Commission (COFECE) deciding the imposition of a major fine (approximately US$1.5 million USD) for the alleged practice of a horizontal agreement with its competitors to fix the price of poultry by-products to final consumers;

Worked with the team that successfully represented Pfizer, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and its Mexican subsidiaries, in commercial and regulatory cases.

Representation of various banks that are part of the Mexican Banking Association (Asociación de Bancos de México). Yuriria has been active as well in other defense pleadings representing entities of the Financial System against acts of the National Banking and Securities Commission, the Ministry of Treasury, the National Insurance and Bonding Commission, the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Customers, the National Housing Commission, as well as state and municipal governments.

Representation of a well-known antiques dealer in a Federal Court trial against the resolution by the Mexican Government denying the exportation of certain antiques, whereby we secured the declaration that Article 33 of Mexico's Monuments and Archaeological Zones Law Rulings is unconstitutional.
 

Publications

"Trends and Developments" in Chambers and Partners Litigation Guide (Mexico) co-author with Ismael Reyes Retana, Fernando García Gómez, and Pablo Vinageras in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
 

Awards and Recognition

Associate to Watch, Public Law,
Chambers & Partners, 2024

Rising Star, Disputes,
The Legal 500, 2020 – 2023

Rising Star, TMT,
The Legal 500, 2020

Administrative Law,
Best Lawyers, 2023