The Costaluz Lawyers team is made up of highly experienced legal experts whose maxim is to provide premium customer service and ensure that all clients receive the best possible outcome to their case.
María Luisa de Castro
CEO and founder
María qualified as a lawyer in 1998 and founded Costaluz Lawyers in 2006. Since then, she has made it her mission to help foreigners understand Spanish law and to achieve better consumer protection. Maria is internationally renowned for getting better protection for consumers at Spanish banks, having won several landmark cases.
More recently, she has focused on Spanish property and immigration law.
María oversees the general management of the company and continually seeks new services and new ways to help clients through everyday contact with them and taking part in online forums, radio interviews, university articles, and articles in the press in Spain, the UK and Ireland. She investigates new legal formulae, precedence and sentences in favour of consumers on a daily basis.
Keith Rule
Director of UK office and Client Services Manager
Keith is a businessman from Milton Keynes and was once a Costaluz Lawyers client himself. He was the one who insisted we made claims against banks for payment instalments for off-plan purchases. His persistence paid off and our legal firm is a pioneering force in Spain in this field as a result.
His empathy towards the client is second to none since he too was a client and experienced first-hand the worry, doubts and difficulties suffered during a court process in Spain. He loves Spain and because of this, shares María’s mission to make it an attractive and transparent country for investment, retirement and business. He has worked for Costaluz Lawyers since 2013.
Jorge Medialdea
Lawyer and Director of the Legal Department
Jorge has nearly a decade of experience in making off-plan purchase claims against banks. As well as getting refunds or better deals for clients, he also runs and manages the rest of the company’s legal services.
These include conveyancing, mortgage cancellations, wills, claims against insurance companies and the Spanish authorities, and rentals.
María del Carmen Romero
Manager of the Spanish office
María studied Public Management and Administration and Court Procedures. She manages the court procedures at Costaluz Lawyers and shares with Keith the task of client services and information in the legal field.
She knows the Spanish legal process inside out, and this knowledge allows us to push cases forward that may otherwise get stuck or held up in the system. She has expert management and customer service skills. She also coordinates the legal firms and professionals who make up our network of collaborators.
She has been working with us since 2012.
Sara Velasco
Lawyer and Head of Immigration Department
Sara is a bilingual lawyer and currently focused on Immigration Law and Private International Law at Costaluz. She is a member of the Cadiz Bar Association.
Sara studied Law and Political Science at Pablo de Olavide University. She expanded her area of expertise with two Master’s Degrees: Legal Practice and Contract Law and Civil Liability.
She obtained merit at her thesis on the post-Brexit relationship between Spain and the United Kingdom on the Gibraltar question (Study area: Public International Law).
Also, she obtained an Honorable Mention for her Academic Career by Castellar de la Frontera Town Hall in 2013.
Ana María Landa Paredes
Lawyer, Tax and Commercial Department
Ana is the lawyer in charge of the Tax and Commercial Department of Costaluzlawyers where she is pursuing her professional career following a period of 15 years at other important law offices in Spain.
She has specialized in tax advice, tax law, tax litigation, tax inspections, both individuals and companies, as well as, company and commercial law.
She is a Law graduate from the Complutense de Madrid University and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Corporate Legal Consultancy at Pontificia de Comillas University (ICADE) and in Business Law at Francisco de Vitoria University. Also, she obtained a Superior Course in Tax Law and Tax Procedure at Centro de Estudios Financieros (CEF).
She practises as a member of the Cadiz Bar Association since 2014, and she was a member of the Madrid Bar Association from 2008 to 2013.
Languages: Spanish and English.
Charlie Montegriffo
Legal Assistant
An experienced and multi-lingual legal assistant, Charlie Montegriffo is back with the Costaluz team. His specialities are Spanish residency matters, real estate and hotel purchasing and general client care.
Fluent in both English and Spanish and always pleased to
assist with any enquiry or update on whatever legal proceeding that you may have with us.
Mar Durio
Legal Assistant
She helps and provides support to Jorge and María del Carmen in the company’s legal and administrative tasks. She has been working with non-residents for more than 18 years. She also helps out with a large part of client services in the Spanish office.
Elena Cote
Administrative and Work Processes Assistant
Elena´s work is cherished by the whole CostaLuz Lawyers as she provides detailed and most effective administrative support to the whole team in the different areas of work of the office: litigation, conveyancing, wills, taxes, immigration…
She is also the main support in the building of the most functional work processes for the Law Firm.
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