When Mexico's Customs Law Changed, Santamarina + Steta Was Already Calling Clients

Key Highlights

• When customs law reformed, Santamarina + Steta used Harvey to synthesize regulatory changes in days — not weeks — and called clients with preventive advice before competitors even knew the rules had changed
• Achieved 30–40% reduction in initial review time on complex litigation files through Harvey Vault integration across Constitutional & Tax Litigation
• Standardized AI workflows across all practice areas with institutional focus groups and bi-weekly refinement cycles
• 6–10 hours saved per lawyer per week and a cultural shift from reactive to strategic

About Santamarina + Steta

Founded in 1946, Santamarina + Steta is one of Mexico’s oldest and most respected law firms, with offices in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Querétaro. The firm covers 34+ practice areas and maintains alliances with leading law firms across 60+ countries. Recognized by Legal 500 Latin America and Chambers and Partners, both Global and Latin America, the firm is known for combining traditional legal excellence with strategic innovation.

Opportunity

Before choosing Harvey, Santamarina + Steta spent six months rigorously evaluating multiple AI platforms across all three practice groups: transactional, advisory and litigation. The firm wanted no surprises. It formed a digital transformation focus group, ran firm-wide trials, and only then moved to institutional deployment.

Iñigo García Muñoz, the Senior Associate who championed the evaluation, explains the logic: “Clients now expect outside counsel to be technologically proficient. If you’re not investing in AI, you’re already behind.” He adds that Harvey stood out because of “its structured workflows, capacity to systematize best practices, and seamless integration with our existing document management system.

Solution

The firm deployed Harvey for Word and Outlook, with Vault as the centerpiece for deal-specific knowledge and litigation file management. From day one, the integration felt natural. Says Adolfo González Trejo, an Associate in Foreign Trade & Customs: “The communication with the tool was so seamless that I was able to complete the work in significantly less time than expected.”

This isn’t efficiency for its own sake. It’s competitive advantage — the ability to think like counsel while machines handle the grind. Says González: “Less time on operational tasks and more time thinking like lawyers.” He notes that Harvey is “especially useful for summarizing and analyzing extensive documents, such as the recent reforms to the Customs Law.”

When Mexico’s Customs Law undergoes significant reform, weeks of manual review would normally stretch ahead — gathering documents, synthesizing changes, drafting client alerts. Instead, González now feeds the regulatory updates into Harvey.

Within days, not weeks, Santamarina + Steta’s team now synthesizes the landscape and calls clients with preventive guidance, while competitors are still reading the fine print.

The Impact

In Constitutional & Tax Litigation, the gains are measurable. Alexa Zuani Zetina, an Associate in the practice, notes that “Harvey’s Vault provides consolidated visibility, real-time tracking of deadlines and procedural acts,” driving a 30–40% reduction in initial review time on complex case files.

But the deeper shift is cultural. The firm moved from ad hoc technology adoption to institutionalized GenAI across multiple practice areas. Associates spend less time on document review and procedural overhead. Strategy and client relationships now get the oxygen they need.

Throughout implementation, González emphasizes, “The support and training from the Harvey team have been excellent in every way.” Bi-weekly meetings with Harvey’s core team kept workflows sharp and adoption accelerating.

For a firm nearly 80 years old, the customs law moment is the clearest proof of what's changed, and what hasn't. The technology is new. The instinct to call clients first, to think ahead, to lead rather than follow — that's always been there. Harvey just gave it room to move faster.