Clemente Piña
Of Counsel
Clemente is licensed to practice law in Mexico and has been since 1994, both at state and federal courts. He obtained his law degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a Master in Constitutional Law from the Barra Nacional de Abogados, both in Mexico, City where he still resides.
In 1987 when he was 20 he started his first job as an intern for Harding, Hess, Santos Galindo & Hanhaussen, a tax litigation firm where he worked for 3 years under the late Enrico Pinchetti who at the time was considered the best tax litigator in all of Mexico.
In 1990 he went on to work for Legal CORP, an entertainment law firm in Mexico City, founded by Gabriel Abaroa, who later became the President/CEO of the Latin Academy for 20 years. At Legal CORP Clemente started drafting recording agreements among others for clients like Warner Music Mexico, EMI Music Mexico and several other independent record companies. There he drafted agreements for artists like Café Tacvba.
In 1996 he was hired to take on the role of Business Affairs Manager at the then recently founded Azteca Records where he signed artist such as Luna Limón, Armando Manzanero, Lisette Salazar, Aranza, Los Quehaceres de Mamá, Miguel Ríos, Los Tri-o, Willie Colón, Alberto Cortez, among others.
In 2005 Clemente was hired to take the role of Business Affairs Director for EMI Music Mexico, where he signed artists like Zoé, Paty Cantú, Lucero, Fey, Alejandra Guzmán, Aleks Syntek, Anahí, Enjambre, Ely Guerra. He also successfully negotiated licenses to release in Mexico projects like 31 Minutos, RBD, Arctic Monkeys, Adán Jodorowsky, Hello Sea Horse, etc.
In 2013, Universal Music acquired and merged EMI Music, Clemente stayed with the new company for 4 additional years, making that a combined EMI/Universal 12 years run. For Universal Music Mexico, Clemente signed artists like León Larregui, Danna Paola, Camila Fernández, Dulce María, Kurt Schmidt, Caloncho and successfully renewed artists like Paty Cantú, Zoé and Enjambre.
Since 2002 Clemente teaches the subjects of Litigation Procedures and Intellectual Property at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City where he has been awarded the “Ernesto Meneses Silver Medal” for 20 years of uninterrupted service to the University among other prizes and recognitions.
In 2017 he also started teaching to non-attorneys, the subjects of Intellectual Property, Legal Aspects of the Music Industry and Contracts at SAE Institute Mexico.
Clemente’s native language is Spanish and he is fluent in oral and written English.