Ana López Pariente of Galicia Abogados named Latin America’s Best Comms, Marketing and BD Director 2026

Ana López Pariente of Galicia Abogados named Latin America’s Best Comms, Marketing and BD Director 2026

The Legal Leadership Awards in Madrid recognize the lawyer who has led Galicia Abogados’ business development, communications and marketing for eight years

Ana López Pariente, director of Business Development, Communications and Marketing at Galicia Abogados, has received the award for Best Comms, Marketing and BD Director in Latin America 2026 at the Legal Leadership Awards, presented during the Gala Nacional del Derecho, in Madrid. The award recognizes a professional who joined Galicia with more than two decades of experience in legal business development and has led the department for eight years.

José Visoso and Christian Lippert, co-managing partners of Galicia Abogados, highlighted her contribution to the firm’s development and the personal recognition that accompanies her career:

“At Galicia, we are very proud of this recognition for Ana and her career. We feel extremely fortunate to have such a talented professional with strategic vision and strong interpersonal skills. Ana has been instrumental in the growth and positioning of our firm and in strengthening our relationships with clients and firms around the world. Her commitment, creativity, leadership and enthusiasm are exceptional, and she has made a significant mark at Galicia. This award recognizes not only an outstanding professional career, but also someone who is much loved and admired by all of us who have the privilege of working with her. We are delighted to see her receive such a well-deserved recognition.”

Manuel Galicia in turn, underscored López Pariente’s contribution to the organization’s culture and placed the award in the context of changes in how law firms are managed:

“We are very pleased that Ana has been recognized as Best Communications and BD Director. It is undoubtedly recognition of her talent, commitment and leadership, but also of the work of her entire team and, to a large extent, the firm as a whole.

Ana’s work has been fundamental to strengthening the positioning of the firm and our partners, demonstrating that communications and business development are strategic to the evolution of law firms and can be pursued without neglecting the human element, which is central to our culture.

Her contribution has also extended beyond these areas, making her a key figure in building our organizational culture and advancing diversity and sustainability initiatives.

This recognition confirms something we firmly believe: law firms should be managed as true businesses, where every department and every member contributes, through their area of expertise, to creating value, driving growth and building a distinctive organization.

It is also great news for Mexico’s legal sector, which has extraordinarily capable professionals in these disciplines. Their development reflects the evolution of our industry and the growing importance of multidisciplinary work in attracting business, developing talent and building stronger, more competitive organizations.”

A career built in the legal sector

A lawyer by training, Ana López Pariente has built her career at the intersection of legal market knowledge, communications and professional relationship-building. When she joined Galicia Abogados, she had more than 20 years of experience in legal business development.

This specialization is an essential part of her profile. Her work requires an understanding of how law firms operate, what their clients need and how relationships between professionals and organizations in different jurisdictions are built. Her legal training provides a foundation for placing communications and business development initiatives in the context of the services the firm provides.

During her eight years leading Galicia’s department, she has helped strengthen the firm’s presence in Mexico, Latin America and other international markets. Her role includes supporting the partners’ work and providing institutional continuity to relationships they have built over more than three decades.

In this work, López Pariente combines adapting initiatives to a changing environment with an approach to business development based on trust, understanding stakeholders and maintaining relationships.

Relationships as the foundation of business development

Relationships are central to her career. Through the department she leads, López Pariente creates the conditions for Galicia’s relationships with clients and firms around the world to grow and endure.

This work connects the partners and internal teams with a network of international contacts. The department supports existing relationships, identifies opportunities for collaboration and maintains ongoing dialogue with organizations involved in cross-border matters.

Her team has cultivated relationships with the departments of international firms, helping strengthen Galicia’s institutional ties with those firms. The role requires internal coordination and an understanding of each organization’s priorities.

López Pariente’s approach aims to ensure that Galicia participates in the international market as a strategic partner with a voice of its own. In this vision, the firm brings a distinct institutional identity, a working culture and legal capabilities that should be recognizable to its clients and the firms with which it works.

The human dimension and innovation are part of that positioning, alongside the quality of legal services. Her work involves bringing these elements into institutional relationships and communications and business development initiatives.

Building bridges between Latin American teams and international firms

The work of Ana López Pariente also extends to relationships with business development, communications and marketing professionals at other Latin American firms.

Through these connections, she has fostered opportunities for collaboration among peers who share professional responsibilities and challenges. Her career therefore has a regional dimension: exchanges between teams working in different markets that, despite belonging to competing organizations, find areas for dialogue and cooperation.

This work is complemented by the relationships her department maintains with international firms. Ongoing contact and familiarity with their teams help sustain ties between Galicia and those organizations beyond any single initiative or meeting.

Specialist publications and their editorial teams are another area of institutional engagement. López Pariente has worked to strengthen these ties and maintain the relationships Galicia has built with international media over the years.

Communications is therefore part of a role that requires an understanding of both the firm’s legal work and its stakeholders’ interests. From this position, her department helps shape how the firm presents its experience, explains its capabilities and maintains a presence in professional debate.

Involvement in Galicia’s strategic decisions

López Pariente serves on Business Development and Sustainability committees at Galicia Abogados. Her participation connects the department’s leadership with the forums where the firm’s institutional initiatives are defined.

Part of her work involves turning those decisions into concrete, measurable actions. The department she leads is responsible for planning, coordination, execution and follow-up, as well as external communications.

This involvement helps align the department’s initiatives with the firm’s priorities and the partners’ work. It also requires adapting tools and ways of working together to the needs of different teams.

Internally, López Pariente has promoted an approach to business development that seeks to involve people at different levels of the organization. Her approach positions employees as participants in building relationships and advancing the firm institutionally.

BD Intelligence and proprietary digital tools

One of the initiatives developed at Galicia is the shift toward a BD Intelligencemodel, or intelligence applied to business development.

This approach incorporates information and digital tools into the department’s work. Under the leadership of Ana López Pariente, Galicia Abogados has developed proprietary tools that bring business development to different levels of the organization and facilitate its integration into the firm’s internal operations.

These tools complement her relationship-based approach. Understanding stakeholders, coordinating professionals and following up on initiatives require information to be organized in a way that ensures continuity.

The combination of relationships, information and digital tools is one of the defining features of her tenure at the head of the department. It also reflects the breadth of a role spanning external engagement and support for the firm’s internal decisions and processes.

Sustainability as an institutional responsibility

Sustainability is another area in which Ana López Pariente has taken on a leadership role.

She leads Galicia’ssustainability model, aligned with the United Nations Global Compact, and is driving the firm’s admission to the GRI Community, which is associated with the Global Reporting Initiative.

Her membership of the Sustainability Committee connects this role with the firm’s institutional structure. In this capacity, she contributes to developing initiatives and translating strategic decisions into concrete actions.

This responsibility broadens the scope of her department and connects it with issues affecting the institution’s culture and development. López Pariente’s contribution in these areas also includes advancing diversity initiatives, as Manuel Galicia noted in his comments on the award.

An individual award backed by the team’s work

López Pariente leads a team of women involved in designing and implementing Galicia’sbusiness development, communications, marketing and sustainability initiatives. Coordinating this work is part of her management responsibilities and the development of the department’s various workstreams.

The team was recognized by The Legal 500 as Marketing Team of the Year México in 2023 and 2025. Both awards recognize the department and reflect work carried out during her tenure at its helm.

In 2026, López Pariente was also nominated in the Intrapreneur category of the FT Innovative Lawyers North America Awards, presented by the Financial Times, which recognizes professionals who act as change agents within their organizations.

The Financial Timesnomination, The Legal 500’s awards for the department and the individual award received in Madrid are distinct honors relating to different aspects of her professional work.

A jury with representation from the international legal market

The Legal Leadership Awards 2026, organized by Gericó Associates, have a 60-member jury comprising corporate legal leaders, journalists and communications professionals from Spain and Latin America.

Its members include Angélica Santiago, head of the Spanish-speaking South America legal team at IBM; Carlos Andrés Bonilla, vice president of legal for Colombia and Peru at Cemex; Erika Díaz, general counsel and compliance officer for Latin America at L’Oréal; and Matías Hercovich, managing director of legal for Latin America and the Caribbean at FedEx.

Also serving on the jury are Rafael López, regional head of legal and compliance for Latin America at Xiaomi Technology; Susana Bravo, head of legal and compliance for Latin America at Ferrovial; and John Rigau, vice president and general counsel for Western Europe at PepsiCo.

The editorial and communications sector is represented, among others, by Agustín Born, communications director at Lefebvre; Carlos Berbell, director of Confilegal; Jesús de las Casas, journalist at Expansión; and Katia Rossi, correspondent for Law.com International.

The ceremony in Madrid

The Gala Nacional del Derecho was held on November 5, 2026, at the Hotel InterContinental Madrid, with representatives of law firms and corporate legal departments in attendance. The awards were established in 2016 as the Legal Marcom Awards and later adopted the name Legal Leadership Awards.

For Ana López Pariente, recognition in the Latin American category adds to a career specializing in legal business development and eight years leading the department at Galicia Abogados. Her career brings together the building of international relationships, collaboration with partners, team leadership and the incorporation of business intelligence and sustainability into her responsibilities at the firm.

Key facts

• Recognized professional: Ana López Pariente
• Position: director of Business Development, Communications and Marketing at Galicia Abogados, Mexico
• Award: Best Comms, Marketing and BD Director in Latin America 2026, at the Legal Leadership Awards
• Ceremony: Gala Nacional del Derecho, held on November 5, 2026, at the Hotel InterContinental Madrid
• Jury: 60 members, including corporate legal leaders, journalists and communications professionals
• Education: lawyer
• Career at Galicia: eight years leading the department, having joined with more than two decades of experience in legal business development
• Institutional roles: member of the Business Development and Sustainability
• committees
• Business development: relationships with clients and international firms, collaboration between Latin American teams and institutional positioning Internal innovation: BD Intelligence
• and proprietary digital tools Sustainability: leads the model aligned with the United Nations Global Compact and is driving admission to the
• GRI Community Team awards:Marketing Team of the Year México , fromThe Legal 500
• , in 2023 and 2025 2026 nomination: Intrapreneur category at theFT Innovative Lawyers North America Awards , presented by the