Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner’s representation of the estate of a wealthy Mexican politician has landed the law firm in a controversy worthy of a steamy telenovela.

For over a decade, Robert J. Reger, a partner in the New York office of San Francisco-based Thelen Reid, was the lawyer for Emilio Martinez Manautou, a physician-turned-politician who held a number of positions in the Mexican government, including governor of the state of Tamaulipas, directly across the Texas border.