Doing Business Over Tequila

Or it can call Alejandro Suarez.

Suarez is the only lawyer in the state licensed as a foreign legal consultant for Mexico. His office at Fredrikson & Byron serves as a one-stop shop for companies from “coast to coast and border to border.”

The 31-year-old Suarez grew up in Mexico and earned his law degree there. He is his clients’ renaissance man, offering assistance on everything from navigating Mexico’s tax laws to finding prime factory locations. For things he doesn’t know—or legally can’t handle—he lines up top Mexican attorneys.

He serves as a sort of diplomat and mediator between businessmen from different cultures. “Things move at a different speed in Mexico,” Suarez says. “Sometimes clients want to close a deal fast and it just doesn’t happen that way.” In those cases, he sometimes encourages clients to sit down with a bottle of tequila offered by a Mexican seller—and only talk business once half the bottle is gone.

Suarez isn’t much for politics (though his dream job is serving as a Mexican ambassador to the United States). He’s not interested in dissecting the effects of NAFTA. He’s simply trying to help companies in his new home help out folks from his old home.

Because, he says, after a long day’s work, he just wants to be able to say, “I was able to do something for the benefit of my home country. I helped improve the quality of life of somebody in Mexico.”