Santiago Martínez Lage
President
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- Law Degree from University of Madrid (1968), he entered the Diplomatic Career in 1972, where he remained active until 1983, having been stationed in Algiers, Libreville, Sofia and Paris.
- He was Member-Legal Adviser and later Head of the Legal Service of the Secretariat of State for Relations with the European Communities (1980-83), where he provided legal advice to the Spanish delegation during the negotiations for Spain’s entrance to the European Communities and coordinated the Spanish administration’s examination of Community law.
- In October 1985 he founded the law firm Martínez Lage & Asociados, (currently MLAB Abogados) where he was Managing Partner and, afterwards, President until 2020, having placed it, since its foundation, as the Spanish Law Firm of reference in European Union Law, Competition Law, and Market Law in general.
- He has dedicated a large part of his professional career to the practice of EU and competition law, and has contributed to the adoption of notable jurisprudential pronouncements, particularly in matters realted to the free movement of goods, patrimonial liability of the Public Administration and protection of the attorney-client privilege. In this area, he has carried out advisory work for the Central State Administration, the Autonomous Communities, the European Commission and the European Parliament and has led the legal direction of the defense of numerous national and foreign companies and business associations in administrative and judicial proceedings, both in Spain and the European Union.
- Since 2020 he has been dedicated exclusively to the extrajudicial resolution of conflicts, an activity that he began to practice more than thirty years ago as a member of the Arbitration and Mediation Commission of Intellectual Property. He has intervened as arbitrator (sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator and president of the tribunal) in various proceedings administered by national and international courts. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Spanish Court of Arbitration and its Arbitrator Appointment Commission, and is an Honorary Member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Arbitration Club.
- In 1985 he founded the professional publication “Gaceta Jurídica de la CEE” (later called “Gaceta Jurídica de la Unión Europea y de la Competencia”), which he directed for 28 years and which has been an obligatory point of reference for all scholars of these matters in Spain.
- He has published more than two hundred articles in academic and professional journals, national and foreign, highlighting in recent years those dedicated to arbitration. He also frequently publishes opinion articles in the daily general information press (ABC, El País…) and in the economic press (Cinco Días, Expansión…).
- He has given numerous lectures on European Union Law, Competition Law and Arbitration, among others, at the Center for Constitutional Studies, the General Council of the Judiciary, the Spanish Court of Arbitration, the Spanish Arbitration Club, the Civil and Commercial Court of Arbitration of Madrid and the Comité français de l’arbitrage. He has been a visiting professor at numerous Spanish and foreign universities, including the New York School of Law.
- He is Vice President of the Spanish Association for the Study of European Law (AEDEUR) and was Secretary General of the Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen (FIDE). He is also Vice-President of the European Community Law Section of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, of which he is a corresponding academician.
- He held the position of Secretary of the Board of Directors of several Spanish companies from different sectors (naval, components, publishing, services…) and has been an independent Director of three listed companies.
- He is also, since 2018, the Legal Advisor of the Círculo de Empresarios, of whose Board of Directors he is a member.
- In 2013 he was distinguished with the Aptissimi Award for Professional Career, awarded by the ESADE Alumni, and in 2014 he received a Liber Amicorum, directed by magistrates Mercedes Pedraz Calvo and David Ordóñez Solís, with the participation of some thirty scholars, jurists and economists, from various public and private spheres.
- He is in possession of the “Cruz Distinguida de Primera Clase de San Raimundo de Peñafort” and other national and foreign decorations.
- In January 2023, he assumed the Presidency of Ayala de la Torre Abogados.