Ana Cecilia Ibarra-Van Oostenrijk

Biography

Cecilia Ibarra-van Oostenrijk focuses her practice on international business transactions and compliance matters, with an emphasis on the energy industry.

Cecilia began her practice as a corporate attorney with a prestigious law firm based in Mexico serving a diverse international clientele in M&A’s, divestitures and spin-offs, corporate restructurings, day-to-day commercial contracts, antitrust, and regulatory compliance matters. She later moved to the United States and continued her private practice with an international law firm where in addition to handling international transactional matters she acquired extensive experience in cross-border disputes, international arbitrations, and internal and government investigations involving overseas operations in countries including the Latin America region, Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia.

Prior to returning to private practice and joining Blank Rome, Cecilia served as Regional Compliance Officer for North America Operations and Senior Legal and Compliance Counsel for Mexico Operations with TechnipFMC, a leading energy services company. In her operational roles with TechnipFMC, Cecilia conducted negotiations with oil and gas industry clients from both the private sector as well as state-owned entities in connection with EPCI, engineering, technical assistance and other agreements, she negotiated joint venture and consortium agreements, NDA’s, MOU, LOI’s and term sheets; she collaborated in designing the company's business strategy for Mexico and was responsible for the goals, KPI’s, and budget of the Legal Department; she managed the local litigation docket, conducted settlement negotiations, hired and oversaw outside counsel services, and provided legal support to the shared services departments. In her compliance roles, Cecilia oversaw the implementation, updating, and adaptation to local law of the company’s corporate compliance program’s elements, she was responsible for investigating allegations reported through the company’s ethics line and handling investigations in the region, she developed and presented anti-corruption, gifts and hospitality, social donations and charitable contributions, conflicts of interest, antitrust, trade sanctions and export controls trainings to employees in both English and Spanish, and she routinely offered guidance on anti-bribery and corruption, trade controls, anti-fraud, money laundering, human rights, antitrust, and other high-risk compliance areas.

Cecilia is a native Spanish speaker and is conversant in French.

* Mexican Counsel not admitted to practice law in the State of Texas.

Recognitions

  • 2019, “Top Latino Lawyers,” listed by Latino Leaders magazine

Affiliations

Professional Activities

As a reflection of her commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, Cecilia serves as co-chair of Blank Rome’s Latinx Affinity Group and she is also an active member of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Cecilia is an active member of various professional associations, including the International Section of the Houston Bar Association, of which she is currently council member and serving as chair, and previously served as a council member from 2005–2008 and again from 2008–2011, including as chair from 2007–2008. She is also a member of the International Bar Association and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (now, AIEN).

Cecilia previously served as a law professor (1994–1995), teaching “Introduction to Law,” at ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico. She has also been a guest lecturer on Mexican law at the Law Center of the University of Houston.

Cecilia is a frequent speaker and author of articles related to her practice.

Credentials

Education

  • University of Houston Law Center, LLM
  • Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), JD