Biography: Insolvency & Restructuring

Dario U Oscós Coria is a legal counsel and practitioner specialising in insolvency, restructuring, creditor rights, litigation, arbitration and mergers & acquisitions.

Oscós Abogados is a high-profile boutique practice that specialises in both domestic and international litigation. The firm has rich experience and technical expertise in handling insolvency, restructuring, creditor's rights, litigation, arbitration, product liability and bankruptcy within a wide variety of industries that range from banking, energy, oil, gas, construction, industrial property, copyright, torts and financial services to telecommunications.

Oscós Abogados has been involved in major insolvency, litigation and arbitration cases in Mexico in the 21st century. The firm has built up a strong reputation for delivering high-quality results in a discreet and timely fashion.

The firm set a milestone by successfully adjudicating the first two cases in the world that recognised and fully enforced another country's insolvency proceedings under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (adopted, inter alia, by USA, UK, Canada and Japan). As the Model Law (EU Insolvency Cross Border Statute) becomes increasingly adopted by major countries, Oscós Abogados will refer to its familiarity and knowledge of international insolvency to ensure clients receive the best possible legal solutions.

The firm successfully concluded a complex RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) action proceeding with cross-border insolvency and criminal implications in USA, UK and Mexico.

Members of the firm have participated in ICC major oil arbitrations as well as major energy and construction disputes. The firm has a rich diversity of clients that originate from numerous countries. Oscós Abogados has foreign clients based in the UK and the US. Oscós Abogados has also worked with clients from South Korea and Canada. In short, the firm has represented individuals and firms from all the major continents. Unsurprisingly, the firm also represents the crucial business interests of key Mexican firms both domestic and internationally.

Mexico has opened its borders to foreign competition in an effort to revitalise its economy. Basing its strategy on liberalised trade, Mexico continues to push for closer trade relations with the USA, Western Europe and Asia. It launched the world's largest free trade area with the USA and Canada in 1994 when it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since the implementation of NAFTA, Mexican trade with the USA and Canada has tripled. Building on that success, Mexico has negotiated 10 additional free trade treaties with over 43 countries that span the Americas, Europe and Asia. As a result, foreign direct investment has flooded in. Private investment is allowed almost in all sectors of the economy, and foreign investment is welcome. For example, 95 per cent of the financial and banking sector is owned by overseas companies. The Mexican legal system welcomes and privileges foreign investment in almost all sectors, including oil and energy.

Mr Oscós is the director of Oscós Abogados, law firm. He is a founder and senior partner at the firm.

He graduated from, and was a professor of the Escuela Libre de Derecho. He studied conflict of laws as a postgraduate at Harvard University. He was the senior litigator at Santamarina & Steta SC as well as the senior litigator and corporate lawyer at Grupo Financiero Banamex Accival.

Mr Oscós has also been a professor of procedural law at the Universidad Iberoamericana; of insolvency at Universidad Panamericana; and of arbitration at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM). He is a member of the American Law Institute (and Mexican delegate and adviser in its transnational insolvency project), the International Insolvency Institute, the International Bar Association, the Insol International, the Insol Europe, the National Association of US Bankruptcy Trustees, of Barra Mexicana Colegio de Abogados and Ilustre y Nacional Colegio de Abogados de México. He is a lecturer and author of judicial literature.

Oscós Abogados and Mr Oscós have been quoted as the best Mexican law firm and lawyer by The New Economy, World Finance, Corporate International and ACQ, inter alia.