Professional Bio and Profile
Luis Manuel Guaida is an attorney at law, graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México *(National Autonomous University of Mexico) in 1970. He did post-graduate studies at Harvard University*, taking a program on Employment and Labor Law, as well as on negotiating techniques and strategies at the university”™s Law School.
He practices employment and labor law, and his areas of experience and expertise are litigation, strategic labor planning, handling labor and union relations, as well as conflict management and solution in those areas.
Senior Partner & Director of guaida y asociados, a law firm founded in 1980, specialized in advising and counseling business in the labor field; he participates directly in providing professional services, and as a coordinator and head of all consulting and litigation projects.
Relevant Professional Activities.
Invited by the Department of State and the Department of Labor of the US, Mr. Guaida participated with a multinational group (24 countries) of experts in the field, in the _Research and Analysis on Labor and Union Systems Program _, during August and September 1987. As a participant of this program, he visited 9 cities (Washington D.C., Orlando, Atlanta, Wichita, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, New York and Boston)to observe U.S. institutions, talk with business and union leaders, politicians, workers and public officials, exchanging ideas and experiences as well as learning about management views on labor relations, and examining the impact of the labor movement on domestic and international economic policy.
He formed part of an advisory group on* Business Coordination for NAFTA* (Coordinación Empresarial Para el Tratado de Libre Comercio/COECE) , participating in the negotiation sessions in the areas of Conflict Resolution and General Service Principles. He was member of the NAFTA Communicators Team for the areas of U.S. universities and the private sector.
A member of the International Bar Association, he was member of the National Minimum-Wage Commission, representing the business sector for ten years, as well a representative for Mexican employers and for the Latin American region before the II Reunion on Planning Employment held by the International Labour Organization (ILO/UN) in Panama City in 1980.
He was president of the Labor Issues Committee of the National Association of Business Lawyers, and was also a member of the now defunct Consulting Committee of the Center for Union Studies of the Strategic Proposition Institute (COPARMEX).
He was Chairman of the Committee on Labor Affairs of the National Association of Corporation Attorneys, Chairman of the Association of Mexican Social-Security Studies and member of the Consulting Committee for the Center for Union Studies, and of the I*nstitute for Strategic Propositions* of the Mexican Employers Confederation (COPARMEX).
Mr. Guaida represented the private sector on the tripartite commission preparing the bill regarding new labor legislation for the Business Coordinating Council, as well as being on the tripartite commission preparing and negotiating the “National Agreement to Raise Productivity and Quality.”
He has directly represented and defended, in a variety of labor disputes and lawsuits, the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, the Confederation of Industrial Chambers (CONCAMIN), the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City (CANACO), the National Chamber of the Electronic Industry and the Mexican Association of Advertising Agencies.
In representation of the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City, he participated as a delegate for Mexico to the* II Conference on Labor Rights and Industrial Relation*s held in Washington, D.C. in September 1994, organized by the U.S. Department of Labor, as part of the work done on the Labor Cooperation Agreement of NAFTA.
Activities within the private sector
Mr. Guaida is the President of the Human Capital and Labor Issues Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce, Director of the Labor Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City (CANACO), memeber of the Labor Law Committee of the Business Coordinating Council member of the Labor Law Committee of the Coordinating Business Council (CCE), member of the Comission for Labor Studies Legislativos of the National Confederation of Chambers of Commerce (CONCANACO) and member of the *Advisory Group for the Parallel Labor Agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement *.
He has received the Yiacatecutli prize, awarded by the American Chamber of commerce in Mexico “for distinguished services within the private sector” for the years 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Luis Manuel Guaida is advisor also to the National Chamber of Electronics Industry, the National Association of the Chemical Industry and the National Self-service and Department Store Association.
Academic activities
Mr. Guaida has been a guest professor of the Mexican Legal Studies Program of the Center for Legal Studies of Houston University. He is also a teacher, at postgraduate level, of the Specialty in Labor Law of the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. He has been a guest lecturer at the Institute for High Business Management (IPADE).
He is the author of several books and multiple articles, and has been invited as a speaker to a number of national and international conferences. Among them are the ones he has given to the International Society for Human Resources Management, in 1993 in Toronto, Canada, to the Association of Industrial Relations of Venezuela, in Caracas in 1993, to The Coca Cola Co. in Ruidoso, New México in 1993, and to the Society For Human Resources Management, in St. Louis, Missouri in 1994 and Boston, Massachusetts, in 1995.
During three years he was a frequent commentator on labor issues in the radio program Monitor in Radio Red, then the most important in the country. He has been a guest writer in the IDEAS section of the Excelsior daily newspaper, member of the Editorial Committee at IDC (Dynamic Consulting Information) of the Expansión Editorial Group, and writer for the magazine Expansión.
Among his personal and community services activities, Mr. Guaida has been President of the Council for Fundación Pro-Niños de la Calle, a private institution working to improve conditions for runaway and street children in Mexico City.