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In November 2024, Alma Rosa Montañez accepted general counsel responsibilities for S&P Global’s Market Intelligence business and a month later for the company’s enterprise data organization. The two-pronged promotion was the culmination of Montañez restarting her career as a securities lawyer in the mid-2010s, a leap of faith for an attorney who had already had her own professional trials during the Great Recession.
Montañez is now leading two separate teams, some ninety-five people, at an organization everyone knows even if they don’t have money in the market. She helped her organization successfully navigate the largest corporate acquisition of 2020, and her expertise just keeps expanding. The GC’s drive is second to none, but so is her commitment to developing others and giving back to her own community.
Recessions & Reinvention
It’s difficult to know exactly what direction Montañez’s career would have gone had she not, like thousands of other attorneys at the time, been laid off during the recession of the late 2000s. The lawyer was doing structured finance capital markets work, until she wasn’t.
“I spent two years figuring out what I was going to do next, but I kept myself busy in the process,” she says.
Montañez learned Portuguese because she knew it was the perfect complement for her Latin American practice. She consulted on litigation and even wrote for Bloomberg Law. Eventually, the time spent cultivating her skills paid off. S&P Global came looking for what Montañez calls a “purple unicorn.”
“S&P Global wanted somebody who had structured finance experience with Latin American language skills,” Montañez remembers. “I was glad I had learned Portuguese.”
ESL to AP
Alma Montañez recalls the moment she and her family set off for Compton, California, in the 1980s. She was seven years old, tearfully hugging her grandparents and extended relatives goodbye before starting the journey north. As she couldn’t yet speak English, Montañez spent two years in the back of the classroom with coloring books, before a teacher realized her strong aptitude for math and scholastic promise. She was provided with weekly English lessons and her intellectual fire was stoked.
“We eventually moved from Compton to the Central Valley, and by the end of my high school experience, I had transformed into a fully formed AP nerd,” the lawyer jokes. “I was a varsity athlete who was also on the academic decathlon team. Leaving Mexico, I just remember thinking that I had to make something of myself. Nobody moves for fun. I wanted to make my parents’ sacrifices worthwhile.”
But just a few years into her role at S&P Global, Montañez took a long hard look at her résumé. She wanted to have more of an impact on the legal organization. She saw ways her team’s approach could improve the broader company. But to create that kind of change required her to become a senior legal leader, and capital markets structured finance lawyers rarely, if ever, graduated into general counsel roles.
Montañez decided to take a demotion in order to grow in a new direction. The Deputy GC at S&P Global was seeking a junior securities attorney and the related finance team wasn’t happy with any of the current prospects.
“I’d built a relationship with some of those finance folks and they knew me,” Montañez remembers. “They let me interview and I got the role. It was a step down at the time, but it was such an important part of my development.”
Had she not had the humility to start again, Montañez likely wouldn’t be in the dual leadership roles she’s in today.
“Alma is not only one of the smartest lawyers I know, she is also one of the best at providing sound and practical business advice with an uncanny ability to see things from almost every possible angle,” says Maria Eberle, partner at Baker & McKenzie. “Our firm has been very fortunate to work alongside Alma on some very complex transactions, and we have greatly benefited from her sound judgement, partnership, and candor.”
Meredith Cross, partner at WilmerHale, feels the same. “From the moment we started working together, I continue to be impressed with how Alma combines brilliant lawyering and managerial skills with tenacity, courage, and kindness,” she says. “She masters any topic and willingly takes on any challenge. I’m confident Alma will continue her remarkable ascent while staying true to her values.”
A Different Kind of Work/Life Balance
Part of Montañez’s success over the subsequent thirteen-plus years at S&P Global lies in the fact that the lawyer is built differently. Her idea of work/life balance, the GC admits, would not work for a lot of other people.
Her “balance” lies mostly in the work she’s done as a board member for Mixteca, a nonprofit created in 2000 to meet the needs of Latin American immigrants in Brooklyn. Mixteca focuses on health, education, and social and legal issues faced by its Latino community. Montañez has even found ways to connect S&P Global’s philanthropic work with Mixteca’s mission.
“S&P Global wanted somebody who had structured finance experience with Latin American language skills. I was glad I had learned Portuguese.”
Alma Rosa Montañez
As Montañez was working through an S&P Global leadership development program in 2023, she was encouraged by company leaders to find ways to connect the two organizations. One of those projects involved S&P Global leaders helping develop a funding program to establish the nonprofit’s permanent headquarters.
“We secured funding and found a building in Brooklyn, no small feat,” Montañez says. “It was the convergence of building these bridges between S&P Global and Mixteca, something I had avoided for such a long time. I had tried to keep my work and my ‘other life’ separate, but I’m really proud of having been able to create these connections. I’m not much of a networker otherwise.”
As of November 2024, it seems like Montañez is going to have a lot less time thanks to her new dual role. But this is an attorney who always manages to maximize each and every hour at her disposal.
Baker McKenzie is a leading global law firm with a presence in over 70 offices worldwide. Our team of 13,000 professionals, including more than 6,500 lawyers and tax experts, collaborates with clients to drive sustainable growth. We provide integrated legal solutions that combine deep practice and sector expertise with unparalleled local market knowledge. For 75 years, Baker McKenzie has guided clients through the complexities of an ever-changing world, helping them adapt and thrive.
WilmerHale celebrates our friend, Alma Rosa Montañez, on this well-deserved recognition. We applaud Alma’s leadership, commitment to excellence, and dedication to fostering an inclusive workplace, and take pride in our partnership with S&P Global and our shared commitment to ensuring fair opportunities and a diverse leadership pipeline.
