People

Miquel is qualified both in Spain and England, having received the LLB from the Barcelona University, the LLM in Shipping Law from the Barcelona Law Society (where he was awarded with a Distinction) and the LLM in Shipping Law from Cardiff University.

He is a member of the Spanish Maritime Law Association (Member of the Managing Board), the International Bar Association, Maritime and Transport Law Committee, and the Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Marítimo.

He is a visiting lecturer at The City Law School, The City University, London; at the Vigo University in Spain; at the Universiy of Piraeus in Greece; at the University of Mexico (UNAM); at the Riga Law School, Letonia, and at the Lund University in Sweden.

After working for the Legal Office of the Barcelona Port Authority, Miquel joined P&O Nedlloyd where he worked as an account manager. He was then retained by the United Nations in Vienna within the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's (UNCITRAL) Transportation Law Working Group, Maritime Law Branch. Miquel also lectured Maritime Law at the Webster University of Vienna.

Miquel then returned to private practice, first in Hamburg and then in Barcelona, after which he moved to London where he practiced as a Solicitor acting for the main shipowners, freight forwarders, logistics operators, P&I's, insurance companies and banks based in London and also for Spanish and Latin-American companies, both in court and in arbitration proceedings.

His most recent work includes advising a shipowner after the sinking of one of its vessels in the Mediterranean Sea; adivising a shipowner after a collision suffered by one of its vessels off the Bay of Biscay; counseling a marine recoveries company on the recover of the cargo of a shipwreck; directing the drafting commission of a new bill of lading for a leading European shipping group; directing two maritime proceedings in Washington, USA, for a leading shipping Spanish trader; and defending the interests of a shipyard before a claim in excess of 200 million Euros.

Miquel has been appointted as Plenipotenciary of the Spanish Crown before the United Nations which on behalf of the Kingdom of Spain signed the Rotterdam Rules.

Miquel has been included in the list of "The Best 50 Lawyers in Spain" by the Legal Acquisition International, thus being recognised as one of the best 50 lawyers in the country.

Miquel speaks English, Spanish, German and Catalan.

You can contact Miquel Roca at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Alis is Blas de Lezo’s Environment and Energy director. Alis obtained her degree in business administration from the University of Wales (UK), with merit. She has also successfully completed her MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), with merit. Moreover, she completed her degree in Marine Resources Management from the International University Study Centre (Spain), with distinction.

Alis set up the Environment and Energy department at Blas de Lezo in 2007. Since then, she has advised a great number of private and public organizations in environment and energy issues, including the UN; the European Commission; the Spanish Ministry of Enviornment and Rural and Marine Affairs; as well as regional and local authorities.

Prior to joining Blas de Lezo, Alis worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) based in Vienna as environmental consultant and economist. She was then retained by the Environment Agency of England and Wales where she worked for several years as part of the National Assessment Team. Following this, she joined Arup & Partners based in their headquarters in London where she worked as environmental consultant.
Alis has also been hired as external consultant on environmental and energy issues by several multinational organisations such as the European Commission and the UN.

Alis speaks Spanish, German, English and Portuguese.

You can contact Alis Cantano at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Hugh Caldin works with Blas de Lezo as an External Consultant, dealing with all matters related to English matters and London Maritime Arbitrations.

Hugh has long experience in Maritime Law since he qualified in 1975, managing maritime and commercial court litigation cases, arbitrations and mediations. Before joining Blas de Lezo's team, he worked as a Solicitor in one of the leading London firms, being responsible for cases that reach as far as the House of Lords. Hugh is also a qualified an experienced Mediator.

He was a member of the Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Marítimo since its foundation in 1987, being one of the members responsible for the drafting of the Arbitration Rules of the CEAMAR, the Arbitration Centre of the IIDM in Caracas.

Hugh is also qualified in Spanish Studies by the University of Durham, and has a Master Degree on Latin American Studies by the University of London, being a great enthusiast of the Spanish culture.

You can contact Hugh Caldin at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Manuel has an LLB from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, and a BSC in Business Administration by the University of Wales. He is an expert of Administrative Law, International Law and EU Law.

Member of the Madrid Bar, Manuel joined Blas de Lezo after 10 years PQE in a top Madrid law firm.

At Blas de Lezo he heads the litigation team, advising the day to day business life of maritime and logistics companies and representing their interests at court.

He also advises the Spanish administration at all levels: local, regional and national public bodies.

He is lately receiving high endorsements for his work in international taxation and EU taxation structures.

Manuel speaks Spanish, English and French.

You can contact Manuel Santaella at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Iria obtained her LLB from the Alfonso X University of Madrid, and holds an LLM on International Trade by the Santiago de Compostela University.

Iria advises our clients on complex logistics and international commerce operations, and also on international transport disputes.

She was born in Basel and lived in Switzerland since not that long ago, for which she maintains a very close personal and business relationship with the Helvetic country.

Iria speaks Spanish, English German, French and Italian.

You can contact Iria García at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Alkis is the Director of our office in Athens.

Alkis is also the Advisor in Chief to the Ministry of Mercantile Marine of Greece, Advisor to the Port of Piraeus in Cruise Affairs and member of the Arbitration Association of Piraeus.

You can contact Alkis J. Corres at +30 2105221506 or by our contact form.

Tulio F. Cusman

Callao, Perú (1959). Tulio has more than 24 years of experience in maritime and international trade law. He developed his activity primarily in advising multinational companies, the defense of the sovereign immunity, and states representation before judicial and arbitration courts either administrative or ad-hoc.

He has participated in numerous cases before the International Court of Arbitration of the Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Centre for Resolution of Investment Disputes (ICSID). It has also been working intensively on various international maritime arbitrations concerning disputes arising from charterparties, shipbuilding contracts, marine insurance contracts, contracts of sale, sea, air and land transportation contracts and insurance policies. He has intervened in many cargo claims, representing both the cargo interests and their insurance companies.

Tulio is linked to a diverse portfolio of multinational companies from the energy and petrochemical sectors, with an extensive network of corresponding lawyers worldwide that enable us to ensure immediate response for the representation of conflicting interests, either in the extrajudicial phase, in litigations in regular courts, and in domestic and international arbitrations.

Tulio holds a LLB and BA in Political Science from the Federico Villarreal National University of Lima (Perú), officially approved by the Complutense University of Madrid and the Spanish Ministry of Education. He carried out postgraduate studies in Civil and Commercial Law in the San Marcos National Major University of Lima (Perú), as well as in Constitutional Law in the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú. He is currently completing his PhD Studies on the field of “Resolution of Disputes in International Trade” in the Complutense University of Madrid.

Tulio is a member of the Bar Association of Lima, the Bar Association of Callao (Perú) and the Bar Association of Madrid. He is also an active member of the Spanish Association of Maritime Law and the Peruvian Association of Maritime Law, the Ibero-American Institute of Maritime Law, as well as of the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).

Tulio speaks English, Spanish and Italian fluently, and has reading comprehension in Portuguese and French.

You can contact Tulio Cusman at +34 914491265 or by our contact form.

Euripides completed studies in Law at the Athens Law School and I has been a member of the Athens Bar since 1978. He is well versed in shipping sector matters and also in Commercial and Corporate Law with particular specialty in Distribution Networks in the context of EU Competition Law.

You can contact Euripides P. Korres at +30 2105221506 or by our contact form.

Patricia is a biologist, specialized in natural resources conservation with eight years of experience in the field of environmental management. She works as Environmental Consultant for our Department of Environment and Sustainability.

Prior to joining Blas de Lezo, Patricia worked as Environmental and Climate Change Consultant for the Washington, DC-based NGO Ecoagriculture Partners, where she developed consultancy projects for diverse organizations like CARE International and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). In addition to her work as a consultant, Patricia worked as a Research Assistant with the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University (New York).

She worked within several projects funded by the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future, focused on sustainable rural development in east Africa and local food systems analysis. She also helped in advising students for independent studies and organizing seminars, and she also served as ITC and GIS Technician for the Cornell Ecoagriculture Working Group.

Previously, Patricia worked as Environmental Consultant for private companies and industrial associations in Galicia (Spain) and as a Research Assistant with the Applied Ecology Lab at the University of Vigo, where she worked in the development on innovative solutions for erosion control and ecological restoration. She was also a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology.

Patricia received her BS in Biology and her MSc in Ecology at the University of Vigo (Spain). She also holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Management from the Center for Environmental Education (Spain).

Patricia speaks Spanish, English, French and Galician.

You can contact Patricia Casal at +34 986443686 or by our contact form.

Jordi obtained his LLB from the Barcelona University.

He is a civil and mercanile law expert. In particular, Jordi has gained a solid reputation as an expert in civil procedural law.

Being a procedural law expert, Jordi advises our clients on all sorts of court tracks and proceedings, in order to enable our clients to ascertain the best solution to their disputes, whether amicable settlements or court proceeding, right at the outset of the case.

He also is en expirienced liquidator, assisting companies in financial troubles, and also chasing our client's commercial debts from those compnies in financial difficulties.

Jordi speaks Catalan, Spanish and English.

You can contact Jordi Falceto at +34 933907151 or by our contact form.

Anna was born in Kiev since very recently when she joined Blas de Lezo.

Anna is currently studying the last year of her LLB at the Barcelona University and she is responsible for the firm's Russian Desk. Anna advises our clients with interests in the Russian speaking world, and also advises companies based in Russian speaking countries with interests in Spain.

Anna speaks Russian, Spanish and English.

You can contact Anna Zhukova at +34 932155416 or by our contact form.