Years ago when Barrett Avigdor was still practicing law, she inadvertently offended a notario publico and nearly torpedoed a real estate deal in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The faux pas? She pointed out that the notario had misinterpreted a provision in the civil code.

“I got a copy of the civil code and I tried to go toe-to-toe with him. That was a disaster. He found it offensive that I was telling him what Mexican law said and I was not a Mexican lawyer,” said Avigdor, now the managing director for Latin America in Major, Lindsey & Africa’s in-house practice group.