Profile
Victor Manuel Frías focuses his practice on commercial law, including competition, mergers and acquisitions, and arbitration.
On the competition side, Mr. Frías has represented clients in numerous cartel investigations before the Competition Commission in a range of industries for over 20 years. He frequently represents clients in pre-merger filings. Mr. Frías has been ranked by different publications as one of Mexico’s premier competition attorneys. He often appears before Mexico’s Federal Specialized Courts in Competition and Telecommunications matters.
On the M&A front, Mr. Frías has also been ranked as one of Mexico’s leading attorneys. In 2017, he closed the largest acquisition in Mexico for over $2.3 billion. He has represented acquirors (both Mexican and foreign), targets, and investment funds in a large number of acquisitions, takeovers, and joint ventures. He also counsels clients on a broad range of corporate and business-related matters, including corporate governance, corporate compliance matters, and internal investigations. Mr. Frías has had substantial transactional involvement in numerous industries, including health care, information technology, retail, and food. He has been ranked by Who’s Who as one of Mexico’s premier attorneys in IT matters.
Mr. Frías’s experience in commercial arbitration includes disputes involving contracts, construction, and corporate law. In a matter frequently noted in specialized literature in Mexico, he obtained an award in excess of $350 million on behalf of an international EPC contractor in an ICC arbitration against Mexico’s national oil company involving claims of delay and additional costs incurred in the design and construction of an offshore oil and gas production platform.
Capabilities
Experience
- Advised Mexican and foreign companies in several cartel and vertical restraints and merger control processes, and has published articles in this field.°
- Represented one of the main hermetic compressors manufacturers in the investigation triggered by the Competition Commission into that market, including appeals before the newly created Federal specialized Circuit Courts in telecommunications and competition matters having to do with the interaction between the 1992 Competition Law and the 2013 amendment to the Mexican Constitution.°
- Since the enactment of the 1992 Competition Law, has notified national and international mergers and concentrations before the Competition Commission, and has negotiated conditions to facilitate the approval of transactions resulting in high concentration indexes in different markets.°
- Requested the triggering of investigations into different markets by the Competition Commission due to unjustified vertical restraints or cartel activities and represented clients in ex-officio investigations triggered by the Commission into the medicine, cement, travelling services, CRTs, ODDs, LCDs, among other markets.°
- Regularly advised international companies on commercial and marketing activities to facilitate compliance with competition and anti-unfair competition regulations.°
- Representation of investment funds in their acquisition of Mexican companies and the structuring of exit strategies, and, in coordination with the firm’s litigation group, has also recovered investments through Mexican Courts.°
°The above representations were handled by Mr. Frías Garcés prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, S.C.
- Professor, Universidad Iberoamericana, Contracts and Corporations, 2002-2015
- In conjunction with the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH) or the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, Greenberg Traurig’s Mexico City pro bono team represented a Salvadorian family seeking refugee status in a litigation against the procedural decision issued by the Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (COMAR) or the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid. The procedural decision indefinitely suspended interview applications for refugee status and the issuance of resolutions, which are essential phases in the Procedimiento de Reconocimiento de la Condición de Refugiado (PRCR) or the Procedure for the Recognition of Refugee Status. The judge ruled in the family’s favor and found the contested procedural decision unconstitutional for leaving asylum seekers and detained individuals in a state of legal uncertainty in Mexico.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, Thomson Reuters, “Stand-Out Lawyers,” 2023
- Listed, Chambers Latin America, “Leading Individual in Competition/Antitrust Matters in Mexico,” 2011-2024
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in Mexico™, 2021-2024
- Listed, The Legal 500 Latin America Guide, 2021-2024
- Leading Lawyers – Latin America: Mexico – Competition and Antitrust, 2021-2024
- Latin America: Mexico – Corporate & M&A, 2021, 2023 and 2024
- Latin America: Mexico - Compliance, 2024
- Listed, Latin Lawyer, “Latin Lawyer 250 - Practice Recognition: Antitrust & Competition; Corporate and M&A,” 2020-2024
- Listed, Who’s Who Legal, “Leading Telecommunications and Regulation in Mexico,” 2015
Credentials
- Law Degree, Escuela Libre de Derecho, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico
- Postgraduate degree, Tax, Escuela Libre de Derecho, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico
- LL.M., University of Chicago Law School
- Mexico
- Spanish, Native
- English, Fluent