Blank Rome Adds Mexican Counsel in Houston to Growing Corporate Practice

Blank Rome Adds Mexican Counsel in Houston to Growing Corporate Practice

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Cecilia Ibarra-van Oostenrijk has joined the firm’s Houston office as Mexican Counsel* in the Corporate, M&A, and Securities group. Oostenrijk has nearly 30 years of experience in practicing international law, with an emphasis on energy industry matters. She brings to Blank Rome a strong platform of longstanding business relationships that she has cultivated in Mexico and across Latin America, notably with regards to counseling on cross-border transactions, litigation proceedings, and compliance. Oostenrijk previously served as senior counsel at McKool Smith and, prior to that role, as regional compliance officer for North America operations and senior legal and compliance counsel for Mexico operations with TechnipFMC, a leading energy services company.

At Blank Rome, Oostenrijk’s practice will focus on counseling clients on their international business transactions as well as dispute resolution proceedings, both litigation and arbitration. Her experience practicing in Mexico and the Unites States enables her to counsel businesses in a range of cross-border transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, and joint ventures. She also provides clients with compliance advice related to anti-corruption matters, international trade, sanctions and export controls, and data privacy. Furthermore, Cecilia helps ensure that clients with cross-border operations are in compliance with internal codes of conduct, internal ethics policies, and other compliance procedures.

While in-house, Oostenrijk led internal investigations, managed an international litigation docket, negotiated settlement agreements, developed and presented anticorruption training, and routinely offered guidance on anti-bribery and corruption, trade controls, anti-fraud, money
laundering, human rights, antitrust, and other high-risk compliance areas. While practicing in Mexico, Oostenrijk gained substantive experience in international M&A, joint ventures, contracts, antitrust, international trade, and internal investigations.

Outside of her practice, Oostenrijk is a member of the International Bar Association, American Bar Association’s Internal Law Section, and Houston Bar Association’s International Law Section, of which she previously served as council member and chair. She is also a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.

Oostenrijk earned her LL.M. from the University of Houston Law Center and her law degree from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. She is a native Spanish speaker and is conversant in French.

* Mexican Counsel not admitted to practice law in the State of Texas.

Since January 2020, Blank Rome’s Corporate, M&A, and Securities group has welcomed a number of leading attorneys across its U.S. offices, enhancing the firm’s services and capabilities throughout its various practices: