Marlen Estévez Sanz has launched Marest Law, a new business law firm that begins operations with five practice areas: Dispute Resolution, M&A and Corporate Law, Restructuring and Insolvency, Labor Law, and Tax Law. The firm, headquartered in Madrid’s central Justicia district, will advise companies, executives, and investors on both Spanish and international matters. It will be supported by an academic and business advisory board, as well as a network of collaborators and specialists in various jurisdictions.
Marest Law was founded as an international firm designed to support companies and leaders in their most complex decisions and transformations, with a model based on senior expertise, a comprehensive vision, and personal commitment. Furthermore, the firm combines the most valuable aspects of traditional legal practice—experience, trust, and support—with a more technological, agile, flexible, and collaborative service delivery.
Under the concept of Building Bridges, Marest Law connects law with business, as well as different jurisdictions and specialties, combining short-term planning with a long-term vision. To achieve this, it assembles international teams tailored to each case, helping clients anticipate conflicts, build agreements, and make better decisions.
The firm is also born native to artificial intelligence, which reduces lower value-added work and allows lawyers to concentrate their time on what really makes the difference: judgment, strategy, and direct client relationships.
“For years we have demonstrated that legal excellence is essential, but it is no longer enough. Companies need lawyers capable of understanding the business, connecting perspectives, and participating in the decisions that shape their future. Marest was created to respond to this reality with a model where the partner’s experience, judgment, and personal commitment are indispensable. I understand the legal profession as a long-term relationship of trust: moving from reacting to problems to anticipating them, from intervening when a conflict already exists to being present when the decision is being made. Our mission is to build bridges to help make better decisions, and that is where we want to support our clients: in the decision-making process,” says Marlen Estévez Sanz, founder of Marest Law.
A firm led by experience
The project is led by Marlen Estévez, a specialist in national and international litigation, arbitration, and mediation, with extensive experience in resolving complex disputes and corporate governance. Throughout her career, she has advised publicly traded companies, financial institutions, funds, and investors on complex, multi-jurisdictional matters, with a particular focus on conflicts arising from corporate transactions, directors’ liability, and shareholder disputes.
His practice is also based on a deep understanding of corporate governance. Estévez assists boards of directors, their committees, and top executives in anticipating and managing risk situations, designing corporate decision-making processes, and fulfilling duties of diligence and loyalty, integrating litigation strategy into business strategy.
Her professional practice has developed alongside extensive institutional and academic work. She chairs the Madrid Business Mediation Center (CMEM) and CIIAM Mediation, is the founder and chair of Women in a Legal World, is affiliated with the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, and participates in national and international arbitration and mediation bodies, including the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). She also serves on advisory boards and governing bodies of various organizations and teaches courses on artificial intelligence governance and law. Her career has been consistently recognized by leading international directories—Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, Best Lawyers, and Leaders League—and by specialized publications in the sector.
An academic and business advisory board
The firm completes its structure with an advisory board of academic and business backgrounds, currently being formed, whose composition will be announced soon. Its role will be to provide Marest Law and its clients with a perspective that transcends strictly legal analysis: comparing strategies in particularly complex matters, anticipating the economic and reputational impact of each decision, and fostering reflection on issues that are transforming the practice of law, including corporate governance, the governance of artificial intelligence, and appropriate dispute resolution methods.
The advisory board does not intervene in legal advice, which is the exclusive responsibility of the firm’s lawyers, but rather operates as a forum for comparison to support the criteria with which MAREST LAW assists its clients.
A firm designed to support business decisions
With this structure, Marest Law will provide advice on Dispute Resolution, M&A and Corporate Law, Restructuring and Insolvency, Labor and Tax Law, through teams configured according to the needs of each case and with the direct involvement of senior professionals. The firm complements this model with its advisory board and an international network of carefully selected firms and specialists, which will allow it to coordinate multi-jurisdictional transactions and disputes while maintaining a single point of contact for the client.
