Marco de Benito

Marco de Benito is a lawyer and arbitrator.

He has participated in arbitrations in the financial, corporate, energy, infrastructure sectors; in seats such as Madrid, Milan, Paris, Geneva, London, or Miami; in proceedings administered by the ICC, the Swiss Arbitration Center, the Camera di Milano, and the main Spanish arbitral courts, as well as ad hoc under UNCITRAL rules.

He has issued awards as amiable compositeur and under Spanish, Italian, and Austrian law, as well under the general principles of law and the lex mercatoria.

Before founding Marco de Benito Estudio de Arbitraje, he practiced law at Uría Menéndez and Moscardó. He also participated in the ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for Latin America.

He is regularly ranked among the most distinguished arbitration practitioners in Spain.
The foundation of his professional activity lies in university teaching and research. A tenured professor at IE Law School, Marco holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Civil Procedure at IE University and a Jean Monnet Module in European Private Law. He teaches comparative civil procedure, arbitration, contracts, and legal history.

He holds a doctoral degree in law from the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, with a thesis written mostly at Yale Law School and the Max-Planck-Institute in Hamburg. He has taught at universities such as Harvard, Bologna, Maastricht, and Beijing.

Marco is the author of Justicia o burocracia and El convenio arbitral, and co-author of The History of Law in Europe. He has coordinated the Enciclopedia del arbitraje and the collective work Arbitraje internacional en Europa. He is also co-editor-in-chief of Arbitraje, the premier academic journal on arbitration in Spanish.

He is a member of the International Association of Procedural Law and the ICC Institute of World Business Law, and a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation.

A native Spanish speaker, Marco is fluent in English and Italian, and can read German, French, and Portuguese.

marco@marcodebenito.com

Antonio Mesa

Antonio Mesa is a lawyer specializing in litigation and arbitration.

Before joining the firm, Antonio worked for two years at Uría Menéndez in the corporate and real estate departments, where he was involved in some of the most important transactions in the Spanish real estate market in recent years.

Antonio holds a double undergraduate degree in law and business administration from the University of Seville and a double master’s degree in law and LLM from IE Law School, where he was awarded the prize to the best student of the year.

He currently combines the practice of law in Madrid with his doctoral studies in law at the University of Seville, with a thesis on the critique of modernity in the philosophical thought of Leo Strauss. He has several publications in philosophy of law and has lectured at several international conferences on human rights at the University of Coimbra.

In 2019, on the 90th anniversary of its foundation, the Spanish national daily newspaper ABC de Sevilla chose Antonio as one of the ninety most promising young Sevillians.

In addition to Spanish, Antonio is fluent in English and French.

antonio@marcodebenito.com

Macarena Villa

Macarena Villa is specialized in litigation and arbitration.

She has practised law at Pinsent Masons and Roca Junyent. She has professional experience in arbitration proceedings, particularly in the infrastructure, construction, and energy sectors. She has been involved in complex arbitration proceedings administered by the ICC and LCIA as well as some of the main Spanish arbitral centers, in different languages and under different laws. She has also handled court proceedings related to arbitration.

Macarena is graduated in law and journalism at San Pablo CEU University. Afterwards, she engaged into a double master’s degree in access to the legal profession and business law.

Being a native Spanish speaker, Macarena is fluent in English and French.

macarena@marcodebenito.com