Fernando Heftye-Etienne
Of Counsel
Mr. Fernando Heftye-Etienne, Of Counsel to the firm, graduated in 1981 from Universidad Iberoamericana. He became admitted in 1982. In 1983 he obtained a Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree from Harvard University’s Law School. He has been a lecturer of International Law at Universidad Iberoamericana since 1987. His areas of practice are antitrust and foreign investment matters, as well as international business transactions and contracts.
From 1996 to 2006 Mr. Heftye served as a Commissioner at the Federal Competition Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia), today the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica), known as “COFECE”. As a Commissioner, he was a member of the Plenary of this agency and was also responsible for the international agenda of the CFC and was the chief Mexican negotiator of the Mexico-U.S. and Mexico-Canada bilateral antitrust agreements, and the competition chapters of the Mexico-EU and Mexico-Japan free trade agreements. During 2004-2005, Mr. Heftye was Head Counsel of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público). Previously, he was General Director of Foreign Investment (1993-1996) and Technical Secretary of the National Commission on Foreign Investments (Comisión Nacional de Inversiones Extranjeras) (1990-1993). In this capacity, he was responsible for implementing Mexico’s foreign investment policy. He was also the chief Mexican negotiator of Chapter Eleven (Investment) of the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as “NAFTA”. He served as Comptroller of the Finance Sector of the Ministry of the Public Function (Secretaría de la Función Pública) (2016-2018); as such, he was responsible for the vigilance of 22 financial governmental entities. He is a member of the Mexican Bar (Barra Mexicana, Colegio de Abogados). He is the author of “Derecho Internacional Público”, Mexico, 2017, a widely-read book published by Ed. Porrúa, now in its 2nd edition. His native language is Spanish and he is fluent in English and French.
