An Atlanta law firm just made a move straight out of the corporate playbook: hire away an entire team from your biggest rival, then use them to open shop in one of the hottest legal markets in North America. Ogletree Deakins, the labor and employment firm headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, has opened a new office in Monterrey, Mexico, staffed by nine lawyers poached from Littler Mendelson, its primary competitor in representing management-side employers.
The new Monterrey office is Ogletree Deakins' 61st location worldwide and its second in Mexico, following the Mexico City office it opened in September 2014, according to International Employment Lawyer. That Mexico City location, the firm's third international office after Berlin and London, is currently managed by partner Pietro Straulino-Rodríguez. The Monterrey team is led by David E. Leal González, who worked at Littler Mendelson for more than a decade before making the jump, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Leal González brought along partners Rogelio (Roger) Alanis Robles and Luis H. Cortés Salazar, plus five additional attorneys and a law clerk based in Monterrey, along with one associate working out of Mexico City. All three of the incoming partners previously practiced together in Littler Mendelson's Monterrey office before moving as a group to Ogletree Deakins, according to the firm's own announcement of the launch.
Why Monterrey, and Why Now
The timing is no accident. Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León with a metro population exceeding 5 million, has become North America's premier nearshoring manufacturing hub, posting an 18.9% compound annual growth rate in industrial real estate absorption between 2019 and 2024. Nearshoring demand there absorbed nearly 94 million square feet of industrial space across 659 leasing deals over that same five-year stretch, per data from Prodensa.
That manufacturing surge is tied to broader investment trends: foreign direct investment in Mexico hit $40.8 billion in 2025, a 10.8% jump from the prior year, while 77% of Mexican exports to the U.S. now qualify for duty-free status under USMCA provisions, according to Duane Morris LLP. U.S.-Mexico bilateral goods trade reached $839.6 billion in 2024, while U.S. goods imports from Mexico totaled $466.6 billion, making Mexico the largest single source of U.S. imports, the same analysis notes.
A Thicker Rulebook for Employers
All that cross-border investment comes with a more complicated regulatory landscape for multinational employers operating in Mexico. Enforcement of the country's mandatory seating law, known as Ley Silla, ramped up in 2025, and Mexico's daily minimum wage rose 13% effective January 1, 2026, according to Ogletree Deakins' own compliance guidance. Employers there also have to navigate NOM-035, a set of guidelines governing workplace stress and occupational risk classification.
Ogletree Deakins itself focuses on representing management in labor and employment law matters, the same specialty that defines Littler Mendelson, its now-former Monterrey team's previous employer. Littler still maintains its own offices in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo as part of a footprint spanning 12 Latin American markets, having opened the Saltillo location in December 2021 as its third Mexican base, per Global Legal Post.
Inside the Obispado Tower
The new office sits on the 58th floor of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla No. 2404, in Monterrey's Obispado commercial district, one of the city's central financial and high-rise corridors. It is a fitting perch for a firm that now employs roughly 1,100 attorneys across those 61 global offices and ranked No. 77 on the 2026 Am Law 100 list of top-grossing U.S. firms, according to Counsel Contacts.
Back home, Ogletree Deakins was founded in 1977 in Atlanta and Greenville, South Carolina, and the firm has an Atlanta location, per the AJC's reporting. The firm has been on something of a physical expansion spree lately, with Columbus, Ohio, among the markets where it operates.
A Volatile Moment in Legal Recruiting
The Monterrey hire also lands amid a period of heightened lateral mobility across the legal industry, underscoring how competitive — and occasionally destabilizing — the fight for talent has become in markets where Ogletree Deakins itself operates. Whether Littler Mendelson will pursue any non-compete or client-solicitation challenges against its departed Monterrey team remains an open question, one that could shape how cross-border legal practices navigate future USMCA reviews and shifting North American trade policy.
