Cross collaboration among Denver and Nogales lawyers fuels agribusiness knowledge, seeds positive culture and client relations 

As the great Oliver Wendall Holmes once said, “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one that they sprung up.” With Fennemore’s unwavering focus on better serving clients at the core of everything we do, our continued expansion offers our lawyers new avenues and talent  to enhance their knowledge efficiently through information sharing. The recent trip to our Nogales office by a team of our Denver lawyers is testimony to the power of information sharing.  We checked in with  Merc Pittinos , Director Business Litigation and Agribusiness and Kole Kelley, Associate, Agribusiness who recently completed a boots-on-the ground trip along with Brian Catlett, Director of Business Development to our Nogales office to get down in the dirt with the Arana family of lawyers including Kim Arana, Managing Partner of our Nogales office, her husband Hector Arana, Director, Business and Finance and their son Daniel Arana also a Director in Fennemore’s Business and Finance Practice Group.  

As background, Nogales has been a major commercial hub for fresh fruits and — especially — vegetables entering the U.S. from Mexico for generations, so it makes sense that the focus of the Fennemore Nogales office is agribusiness, international trade and tax law, international transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Most clients are companies in Mexico that open operations in the United States, produce distributors and transportation companies looking for legal support.  The lawyers at Clients also include cross-border business transactions and business dealings in the U.S. and in Mexico.  

“We wanted to give the Denver team a mix of perspectives, so we reached out to a cross-section of clients and asked if they could offer tours and an informal information exchange with the Denver team, said Daniel Arana.  “The produce industry is their passion, and they love it when we visit them.”  

The client tours  included visits to an established, family-owned local distributor that imports produce from Mexico throughout the U.S., the largest importer of grapes in the U.S. that caters to higher end retailers and is also the owner of the Mexican grower, and a multi-generational family farm that has been growing 100% USDA certified organic produce, procuring organic seeds and cultivating in state-of-the-art greenhouses. 

“Each company graciously shared their deep knowledge and expertise in the agriculture sector and their unique stories,” said Kelley.  “We gained invaluable insights into the opportunities and challenges faced by clients in the agriculture sector. Thanks to the Arana family, we not only experienced the beauty of exceptional produce, but we also learned so much from their clients.  Our experience  was truly inspiring and will help us to  continue to bring value and excellence to our clients.” 

“The trip to Nogales supports the firm’s mission and shared purpose and aligns with our commitment to agribusiness,” said Merc Pittinos. “Multiple perspectives bring diverse ideas and solutions and will ultimately lead us to better decision-making and problem-solving for our clients. There is nothing better than face-to-face engagement to get insights directly and to cultivate relations among offices and with clients.  Meeting the Arana family and their clients was time well spent and accelerated our agricultural knowledge with greater efficiencies.”