The practice
Terra Firma is a full practice for foreigners in Mexico. The contracts that document your operations. The company that structures them — chosen and drafted for your case, not from a template. The property work, from due diligence to closing. The immigration steps that follow the investment. And when things go wrong, litigation — with an honest written assessment before anything is filed. Different matters, one method: we verify before you decide, and we tell you what the law says in plain English.
The inheritance
Within that practice, one credential is genuinely ours alone. Mexico's agrarian system is usually learned from the outside — a statute consulted when a deal touches ejido land. Our founding partner grew up inside it. His father is an agrarian lawyer, and the world of the ejido — the meetings, the parcels, the certificates, the disputes that outlive the people who started them — was the family's dinner-table conversation long before it became a practice area. Some children learned the names of ballplayers; in the Mendoza house, you learned that possession and ownership are not the same word, and why the difference decides everything.
That inheritance matters because half of Mexico's territory is communal land governed by its own statute, its own registry and its own courts — and it sits exactly where foreigners buy, build and invest. It is not the whole of what we do. It is the layer that decides whether the rest of what we do stands on solid ground.
Terra firma is Latin for solid ground. We named the firm after the only thing worth standing on.
Who you'll work with
Gabriel Mendoza G.
Gabriel earned his law degree at ITESO, the Jesuit university of Guadalajara, and built his graduate formation at Universidad Panamericana, Campus Guadalajara — graduate specializations and a Master's degree — keeping his practice sharp through continuing programs with ANADE, Mexico's national association of corporate counsel, and ESADE.
His core has been the same from the beginning: representing foreigners in Mexico — personally, closely, in English — across the business practices their projects touch: corporate and transactional work, contracts, real estate and its agrarian layer, and the immigration steps that follow. A licensed Mexican attorney (cédula profesional) and a second-generation agrarian practitioner, he leads every matter himself: at Terra Firma you deal with your attorney, not with a case number.
Gabriel writes every article and guide published under this firm's name, and answers the initial consultations personally. If you've read our work on ejido land, the fideicomiso or the Bacalar case — that's his red pen.
The team around your matter
Terra Firma works as a boutique: Gabriel as principal, leading every matter personally, supported by a team whose credentials do the talking:
The litigation team is integrated by attorneys who practice in the field — agrarian disputes before the specialized tribunals, civil and family matters, and claims against the State (responsabilidad patrimonial) — with postgraduate training in amparo and constitutional law. The same team runs our due-diligence and litigation-risk analysis: every contract we draft or review is tested for one thing beyond its wording — whether it can actually be enforced. A contract that can't be executed is just expensive paper; making sure yours isn't is a core discipline of this firm.
Certified translation is led by an expert translator (perito traductor) authorized by the Supreme Court of Justice of Jalisco since the 1990s — three decades of court-recognized practice, with a professional background in administration and finance behind the legal-financial terminology.
Clerks and staff complete the office — including law clerks with more than five years inside the firm — plus a working network built over years: notarial offices we trust and local counsel in the regions where our clients buy and build. You always know who's handling your matter — and no part of Mexico is out of reach.
How we work
Every deal in Mexico stands on the ground. We start there. An acquisition, an industrial site, a company, a home — before anything else, we verify the ground it will stand on: legally, registrally, literally. Then we build up. And everything we find, you get in plain English — because our mission is bigger than any single file: Mexico, in plain English.
The source, not the story
We verify at the registries — RAN, Public Registry of Property, CONAGUA — never in the seller's folder. Findings in writing, with the legal basis cited article by article.
Flat fees, in writing, before we start
You know the cost before we begin. Litigation is quoted by stage. No open-ended hourly meters.
The answer you need
Sometimes our report says proceed with confidence; sometimes it says renegotiate. Either way, you decide with the full picture in front of you.
Talk to us
In English, on your time zone — bring the question, leave with the map.
Book a consultationNot ready to talk? Start with our free guides, or watch Gabriel explain the law on YouTube.
Our office: Lope de Vega 26, Col. Arcos Vallarta, Guadalajara 📍 — clients are welcome in person or by video.
This page provides general information about the firm. Legal information on this site is not legal advice; no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. © 2026 Terra Firma Attorneys at Law · terrafirma.law