Santiago Martinez Lage

Santiago Martínez Lage President, AYALA DE LA TORRE ABOGADOS • Law Graduate (Madrid 1968), member of the Bar Associations of Madrid (1982) and Barcelona (1985). An official of the Diplomatic Corps in Spain since 1972 (with postings in Algiers, Libreville, Sofia and Paris), he led the legal team in the negotiations for Spain’s joining the European Communities (1980-83). In October 1985, after leaving the Diplomatic Corps, he founded the law firm of Martínez Lage & Asociados (currently MLAB Abogados), which is the leading firm in Spain for European Union Law, Competition Law and Market Law in general. Until 2017, he was the Managing Partner of this Firm and its President until June 2020.

He has advised and represented numerous companies and business associations before the Spanish Administration and Courts, as well as before the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union, having contributed to the formation of Spanish and European Union case law in terms of the free movement of goods, State liability and legal privilege. He has also advised the Spanish State (and Regional Governments) as well as the European Commission and the European Parliament. In June 2020, he became independent of the Firm that he had founded 35 years earlier, in order to dedicate himself exclusively to extrajudicial conflict resolution, particularly Arbitration.

In January 2023 he was appointed President of AYALA DE LA TORRE ABOGADOS. He is Vice-President of the Spanish Association for the Study of European Law (AEDEUR). He is a corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation and Vice-President of its European Community Law section. He was Secretary General of the “Fédération internationale pour le droit européen” (FIDE), from 1988 to 1990, and of its 14th Congress (Madrid, 1990). He received the Aptissimi Award for his professional career in Business Law, from the ESADE Alumni in 2013, and a Liber Amicorum from his peers in 2014.