The Gala Nacional del Derecho will be held on November 5th at 7:30 pm at the InterContinental Hotel in Madrid, where the 2026 Legal Leadership Awards will be presented. The ceremony will be preceded by two roundtables: in the first, partners from international firms will analyze the growth strategies of large law firms; in the second, general counsel from large companies will discuss the role of the legal director in corporate decision-making.
The awards jury, comprised of 60 general counsel from leading companies and renowned legal journalists, will recognize excellence, leadership, and innovation in the legal sector in Spain and Latin America. This year, 26 awards will be presented across four categories: institutional leadership in legal counsel, firm excellence, professionals, and innovation and ecosystem. The gala will be attended by representatives of the legal profession and in-house legal departments from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as institutional representatives from the sector, such as Eugenio Ribón, Dean of the Madrid Bar Association.
In the first panel, “The Big Law Game: The Transatlantic Battle for Leadership,” Gericó Associates, the awards organizer, has brought together José Giménez, National Managing Partner of Linklaters; Eduardo García, Office Managing Partner Spain of Clifford Chance; and Armando Albarrán, partner at Gibson Dunn Spain. Moderated by Marc Gericó and María Sol Rubio, partners at Gericó Associates, they will discuss the various growth paths facing major law firms today.
The second panel, “From In-House Counsel to CEO’s Co-pilot: The New Era of the General Counsel,” will feature Clara Ruipérez de Azcárate, Director of Intellectual Property at Telefónica Group and General Secretary of Movistar Plus; Fernando Ortega, Board Member & Company Secretary and General Counsel for Spain and Portugal at Siemens; Gloria Sánchez, Group Chief Data and AI Officer at Banco Santander; and María José López Lorenzo, Legal Director of LALIGA. Moderated by Gonzalo Antón Tascón, Legal Engineering Manager EMEA at Harvey, the panel will address the evolution of the General Counsel role toward a strategic position in corporate decision-making.
On October 20, Gericó Associates hosted a pre-awards event at Pérez-Llorca’s Madrid headquarters. The event addressed business development in the legal sector, the impact of artificial intelligence on the provision of legal services, fee models, and the criteria general counsel use when selecting firms.
Following the roundtables, the awards ceremony will begin. The jury, composed of 50 general counsel and 10 legal journalists, met on October 14 and 15 at Torre de Cristal to deliberate on the nominations and reach its decision. The winners will be announced on November 5 during the National Law Gala at the InterContinental Hotel in Madrid.
Among the finalist candidates are the firms Álvarez Liévano Laserna, Arochi & Lindner, Benites, Vargas & Ugaz, Bufete Aguirre, Quintanilla, Soria & Nishizawa, Cazorla Abogados, CECA MAGÁN Abogados, Coral Delgado y Asociados, CorralRosales, Dávalos Abogados, Durán & Osorio Abogados Asociados, ECIJA Costa Rica, Ecix, EJASO, ELZABURU, Esguerra JHR, Estudio Hugalde, EVV Abogados, FILS, Freshfields, Galicia Abogados, GNCI Law, González Mebarak y Consultores Jurídicos, Grant Thornton, Grupo CEAS Abogados y Consultores, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Lopezmarqués, Legal&Fixer, Leynet Consultores, Linklaters, Marest Law, Martínez Quintero Mendoza González Laguado & De La Rosa, Muñiz, Olaya, Meléndez, Castro, Ono & Herrera Abogados, Navarro, OlarteMoure, OMP Abogados, onLygal, Payet, Rey, Cauvi, Pérez Abogados, Pinsent Masons, PPU, Q&Q Legal, RHO, RLD Asociados, Robalino, RocaJunyent, Silva Abogados & Consultores, SLJ Abogados, Vestalia Abogados, Vilches Abogados, Von Wobeser y Sierra y Zabalgo Abogados, as well as the Madrid Association of Family and Childhood Lawyers (AMAFI) and the Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Center (CAR).
Also vying for awards are the legal consultancies of ARAG, Atos Major Events, Danone, Ecoembes, Ericsson, Iberdrola, Iberpay, Insulet, Niubiz, Prosegur, UNEI Grupo Social, Urbaser, Vivofácil, Vodafone and Xiaomi, and the legaltech startups Absia Legaltech, AI Consultas, Paction AI, Pink Lawyer, Prudencia.ai and Stipulia.
An exceptional jury
The jury was organized into four rounds of deliberation, in an independent and transparent process. Voting was conducted through the Kuorum platform, which certified the process. No jury member voted in the categories in which their organization was competing.
The jury for this edition was made up of Leonor Abad (Repsol); María Aguado (Mastercard); Maite Aja (Western Union); Edmundo Alcázar (Walmart); Cristina Álvarez (Cintra); Isabel Álvarez (Capgemini); Eva Argilés (Applus+); José Miguel Barjola (Aranzadi La Ley); Ana Bayó (Bayer); Virginia Beltramini (Moeve); Samantha Beltrán ([EMPRESA] ); Carlos Berbell (Confilegal); Carlos Andrés Bonilla (Cemex); Agustín Born (Lefebvre); Susana Bravo (Ferrovial); Gemma Casademunt (CaixaBank); Clara Cerdán (Famar); María Cermeño (Telefónica); Juan Charro (PagoNxt); María Cobián (Lactalis); Asier Crespo (Microsoft); Jesús de las Casas Vega (Expansión); Ana de Quintana (Mercedes-Benz); Cristina del Val (Kenvue); Erika Díaz (L’Oréal); Fernando Díaz (Sacyr); Patricia Esteban ([MEDIO] ); Rodrigo Flores (Covestro); Mariana García (Accor); Xavier Gil (El Economista); Matías Hercovich (FedEx); Cristina López (FCC); Rafael López (Xiaomi); María José López Lorenzo (LALIGA); Heidi Maldonado (Líder Legal); Ignacio Mendoza (Heineken); Carlos Menor (Renault); Teresa Mínguez (Porsche Ibérica); Ana Isabel Montero (JTI); María Ocaña (Santalucía); Fernando Ortega (Siemens); Ignacio Pereña Pinedo (Grupo ACS); Eduardo Pérez (Makro); Mariano Pérez de Cáceres (Meliá Hotels International); Emilio Puig (Uber); Javier Ramírez (HP); Moisés Ramírez (GSK); John Rigau (PepsiCo); Patricia Rivas (Bausch Health); Eduardo Rodríguez (Grupo Cobra México); Katia Rossi (Law.com); Carmen Ruiz Lorente (Huawei Spain); Sonia Salmerón (Forbes); Gloria Sánchez (Santander); Angélica Santiago (IBM); Miguel Soler Ruiz-Boada (Prosegur); Ana Suárez (Intrum); Carlos Valenciano (Ericsson); Andrea Viale (Idealista), and Álvaro Zarzalejos (El Confidencial).
The Legal Leadership Awards 2026 are sponsored by Harvey, MyShelfCo by Auxadi, The Legal Headhunter, Burford, Palomino Flores Hernández Rodríguez Abogados, Lopezmarqués, DiliTrust, CECA MAGÁN Abogados, Prudencia.ai, Kuorum and maite, and supported by the Madrid Bar Association.
Tickets for the National Law Gala can be purchased at https://legalmarcom.com/
