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

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

Her career brings together legal training, strategic leadership, international relations and team management. From her position at the Mexican firm, López Pariente has worked to strengthen ties with clients and firms in other jurisdictions, raise Galicia’s international profile and introduce business intelligence tools. Her responsibilities also include leading the firm’s sustainability model.

The individual award adds to the recognition received by her department: the team she leads received Marketing Team of the Year México recognition from The Legal 500 in 2023 and 2025. In 2026, López Pariente was also nominated for the FT Innovative Lawyers North America Awardsby the Financial Times, in the Intrapreneurcategory, which recognises those who drive change from within their organisations.

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.

That specialisation 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 organisations 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, knowledge of stakeholders and ongoing relationship management.

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 organisations involved in cross-border matters.

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

The approach taken by López Pariente aims for Galicia to participate 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 recognisable 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 business development and communications 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 ties, she has fostered opportunities for collaboration among peers who share professional responsibilities and challenges. Her career thus has a regional dimension: exchanges between teams working in different markets that, despite belonging to competing organisations, 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 organisations 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 the interests of its stakeholders. 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 sits on the 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, implementation 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 organisation. Her approach positions employees as participants in building relationships and developing the firm institutionally.

BD Intelligence and proprietary digital tools

One of the initiatives developed at Galicia is the shift towards a BD Intelligencemodel, or the application of intelligence 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 organisation and facilitate its integration into the firm’s internal activities.

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

The combination of relationships, information and digital tools is one of the defining features of her tenure as 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, which is aligned with the United Nations Global Compact, and is driving the firm’s admission to the GRI Community, associated with the Global Reporting Initiative.

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

In her work, sustainability is also part of Galicia’s positioning and how the firm presents its identity to clients, professionals and other organisations. This responsibility broadens the scope of her department and links it to issues affecting the institution’s culture and development.

An individual award backed by the team’s work

The Legal Leadership Awards honour adds to a career in which collective work features prominently.

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 areas of activity.

The team was recognised by The Legal 500 as Marketing Team of the Year México in 2023 and 2025. Both awards went to the department and recognise work carried out during her tenure as its head.

Her 2026 nomination in the Intrapreneur category of the FT Innovative Lawyers North America Awardsby the Financial Timesadds a different dimension to that record: involvement in driving change from within the organisation.

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

A jury with representation from the international legal market

The Legal Leadership Awards 2026, organised by Gericó Associates, have a 60-member jury comprising in-house 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, 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 5 November 2026 at the Hotel InterContinental Madrid, with representatives of law firms and in-house 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, the Latin American category award adds to a career specialising 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 integration of business intelligence and sustainability into her responsibilities at the firm.

Key facts

• Award recipient: Ana López Pariente
• Position: director of Business Development, Communications and Marketing at Galicia Abogados, Mexico
• Award: Latin America’s Best Comms, Marketing and BD Director 2026, at the Legal Leadership Awards
• Ceremony: Gala Nacional del Derecho, held on 5 November 2026 at the Hotel InterContinental Madrid
• Jury: 60 members, including in-house legal leaders, journalists and communications professionals
• Training: lawyer
• Career at Galicia: eight years leading the department, having joined with more than two decades of experience in legal business development
• Institutional involvement: member of the Business Development and Sustainability
• committees; relationships with clients and international firms, collaboration between Latin American teams and institutional positioning
• Business development: 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, from The Legal 500, in 2023 and 2025
• 2026 nomination: Intrapreneur category of the FT Innovative Lawyers North America Awardsby the Financial Times