Hugo Testé was a first-year lawyer at Mayer Brown in Houston when a partner walked into his office and handed him a case file for a pro bono matter.
“There is no expectation for you to win this case,” the partner said. “In fact, you are going to lose.”
Testé opened the thin folder and found the asylum petition of a 19-year-old Honduran mom and her three-year-old daughter.
“There wasn’t a lot in the case file regarding evidence to support justifiable grounds for asylum,” he told The Texas Lawbook in a recent interview.
Being the son of Cuban immigrants who had received asylum four decades earlier, the case hit home right away. Testé quickly interviewed his new clients and learned she fled Honduras after death threats from the MS-13 gang syndicate because her former boyfriend — the child’s father — was in a rival gang. He would see and hear the fear in her face and voice.
“After one meeting with my clients I knew that I couldn’t afford to lose,” he said. “I knew what this case represented to that small family. Looking back at this moment I realize how shockingly unqualified I was to take this on, but I put my all into this case because it mattered. It was a humbling experience.”
“I will never forget hearing the judge rule that asylum would be granted and turning to my client to translate those words,” he said. “After that moment, I knew that my path had taken me to that moment for a reason.”
Nineteen years later, Testé is the general counsel and vice president of legal of Vopak, a U.S. subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Vopak, a multinational chemical, oil and gas and biofuels storage corporation.
During the past year, Testé has guided Vopak through numerous transactions, including a joint venture with AltaGas to develop a large-scale liquified petroleum and bulk liquids terminal in Prince Rupert, Canada, and the sale of the company’s Savannah, Georgia, terminal to BWC Terminals for $106 million. He was also instrumental in negotiating a complex transaction that marked Vopak’s first foray into electricity storage in the U.S. that will allow it to own and operate two stand-alone lithium-ion battery energy storage systems by the end of 2024.
He also played the leading role in a major federal court matter against one of its key competitors and successfully resolved an eight-figure construction dispute through a hard-fought, two-day mediation.
Testé’s 2023 successes are the reason that the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring him with the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (less than five lawyers).
“Hugo’s understanding of the geopolitical landscape and the corresponding impact on the business, his diplomatic approach and his ability to understand and interact with other cultures have all been invaluable to Vopak in several cross-border transactions in North and South America, especially in Canada, where he recently led a negotiation with First Nations rights holders,” said Vopak Corporate Counsel Nadia Barrow, who was one of a group of current and former Vopak lawyers who nominated Testé for the award.
Bracewell partner Phillip Sampson said that Testé “routinely rolls up his sleeves and works hand-in-hand with outside counsel to craft effective discovery materials and persuasive briefing.”
Sampson and other lawyers who work with Testé said that his steady and calm demeanor yields thoughtful solutions to complicated problems and productive negotiations.
“Mr. Testé has a style that his lawyers seek to emulate,” said White & Case partner Chris Dodson. “He is a serious and dedicated leader of both his company lawyers and his outside counsel. He is unflappable under pressure and makes tough decisions quickly, always charting a clear path and objectives.”
“Mr. Teste is everything you want in a legal leader — he sets ambitious and clear objectives, enthusiastically pursues company objectives, and does all of this with a smile on his face,” Dodson said.
Hunton Andrews Kurth partner Vera Rechsteiner said Testé’s “intellectual abilities in legal matters” and his “effective management of lawyers” help him be a “rapid fire problem solver, often under extreme time pressure.”
Testé said his biggest success during his six years at Vopak has been “fostering a successful and diverse team of legal professionals.”
“It has been tremendously fulfilling to cultivate an environment for capable professionals to grow and prosper,” Testé said. “I am a big believer in empowering my team to grow, because I know they have the skills to consistently develop given the right environment, training and autonomy. At some level, we all want our work to mean something, to have an impact beyond the day-to-day toil.”
“If I am fortunate enough to have a professional legacy, I hope that it is in the teams that I create and the collective successes that we achieve,” he said.
Born in The Heights and raised in the Kingwood community of Houston, Testé has a family history of advocacy for political and religious freedom. His parents were both born in Cuba and were brought by their families to the U.S. in the 1960s.
Testé’s great-uncle was a Catholic religious leader who was a vocal opponent of communist-led violence and was repeatedly arrested. Because of his great-uncle, all male family members with the Testé last name were threatened with arrest, he said.
“My dad told me that my grandfather was operating a Chevron service station when a taxi full of soldiers showed up and drew their guns and took him away,” Testé said.
He said his grandfather was imprisoned in a military complex called El Morro, where the revolutionaries executed political dissidents.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: The Lawbook visited with Hugo Testé about what outside lawyers need to know about him.
“When my grandfather got out of jail, he walked 10 miles to the family home and told his family to start packing their things,” he said.
Testé said his uncle was well regarded by the community, and a representative of the French embassy expedited their passports for the family to flee to Miami and then on to Houston.
Testé’s father, who is 82, is an international freight forwarder and his mother was a real estate broker. He is the first in his family to be a lawyer.
“I would say that my parents indirectly influenced my career choice by highlighting the occupations that seemed like a good fit,” he said. “I can still recall my mom telling me that I was suited to be a lawyer, politician or telenovela star. I have very little tolerance for politics. I may take up the third option if my legal aspirations don’t pan out.”
Prior to going to law school, Testé took a job as a legal assistant at Baker Botts to “gain an understanding of the legal profession before I committed myself” to a life in the law.
“The program delivered far more than I expected,” he said. “I learned just how hard everyone in a law firm works and the commitment this career would require if I wanted to succeed.”
Testé worked for then-Baker Botts securities litigation partner James Maloney, whom he said has “the gravitas of a federal judge and dresses like Don Draper from the series Mad Men.”
“He gave me advice regarding law school and law firm selection that I still give others to this day,” he said.
When Testé graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2004, his mother presented him with a framed crayon drawing Testé made in the first grade for career day when he drew himself as a lawyer.
“I guess I first considered a legal career at the ripe old age of 6,” he said.
After practicing for more than two years at Mayer Brown in Houston, Testé moved to the United Kingdom, where he earned a master’s degree in international and comparative law at the University of London. His goal was to land a job with a U.K. firm.
Then a phone call from a recruiter “changed everything.”
“I was asked to consider an in-house role that would be international in scope and practice,” he said. “The pivotal question that led me to consider the role was, ‘Do you want to work on a foreign case from behind a desk or do you want to work on international assignments where the work is being done?’ That question changed how I viewed law firm and in-house practice and ultimately led me to take on my first in-house position.”
Testé spent six years as senior legal counsel at marine and energy technology company Wärtsilä, energy and construction management firm JGC America and then storage facilities designer and builder CB&I.
In 2017, Testé was looking to move into a general counsel role, preferably at an international company focused on growth.
“Vopak fit that bill to a T,” he said. “During my first interview I was told that Vopak provided me with an opportunity to perform meaningful work with great colleagues. Vopak has delivered on this promise. I was also told that working at Vopak was a bit like bull riding. I found the analogy to be pretty spot on.”
Testé said his biggest challenges since joining Vopak have been “navigating political changes that affect Vopak’s right to operate.”
“This has taken on different aspects in every jurisdiction, including opposing unilateral actions that redirect vessel traffic to our terminals or navigating attempts at nationalizing our operations in foreign jurisdictions,” he said. “Unlike commercial contracting or project development, these matters always present legal counsel with a high stakes game and a very unequal playing field.”
Bracewell partner Lytch Gutmann said Testé is team-focused and wants to work together to find a solution.
“He is very detail-oriented, yet he ensures that his team continuously keeps sight of the bigger picture and overall goals and strategies for the project or matter at hand,” said Gutmann, who notes that Testé is an aficionado of Malbec wines. “Hugo absorbs complex legal issues quickly and is able to translate those into business concepts his internal clients can easily grasp.”
Anahita Nariman, Vopak’s assistant general counsel, said “even the global pandemic did not break Hugo’s stride.”
“While the world was adjusting to the new realities of working from home, Hugo was busy during the better part of 2020 negotiating and implementing a 50/50 joint venture between Royal Vopak and BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund,” Nariman said.
Together, albeit working remotely, Nariman and Testé worked with multiple counterparties, their respective law firms and lenders, and internal stakeholders to close the $620 million deal, acquiring three major industrial terminals in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
Testé said his “biggest legal success” during his time at Vopak is the formation of Vopak’s newest joint venture in Canada — Ridley Island Energy Export Facility (REEF).
“The formation of this joint venture constitutes the culmination of nearly seven years of work that spanned virtually every element of in-house practice,” he said. “I look forward to seeing this joint venture fulfill its purpose in the years to come.”
Rechsteiner said Testé is an excellent manager who brings out the best of the people.
“Hugo has excellent analytical and technical skills as well as a litigator’s eye, so he really has the perspective of both the transactional and the litigation lawyer which are so fundamental for a great lawyer,” Rechsteiner said.