Maria José Morales has been a Counsel in Garrigues’ Administrative Law, Planning and Zoning, and Environmental practice since 2016, and joined the firm in 2000. Throughout her professional career she has been providing legal advice both to public authorities as well as to companies in a consultative capacity and also in connection with lawsuits, in all areas of administrative law:

• She has extensive experience in the area of public aid and subsidies, participating both in preparing regulations and, in particular, providing legal assistance to companies in relation to the application process, obtaining and justifying subsidies in all types of sectors (industrial, technology, energy, water, mobility, digitalization, tourism, etc.) and especially, in relation to proceedings brought against beneficiaries for the return or financial control of subsidies, including those linked to processes to recover State aid that has been declared contrary to EU law or in the context of the jurisdiction of the Court of Auditors. She also has a wealth of experience in preparing submissions and appeals in the administrative and judicial review jurisdictions (including cessation appeals at the Supreme Court) in this area.
• She provides advisory services in connection with public procurement both to the public authorities and, in particular, to private entities on all types of public tenders (especially in relation to the financing and execution of public infrastructures, among others, in the area of healthcare) and also participates in the drafting of special administrative terms of tender, providing legal assistance to tenderers in the preparation of special appeals against tender specifications, exclusion of tenderers, contract award decisions, etc. and also in court. María José has a wealth of experience in preparing reports and opinions on the execution, amendment, performance, assignment and termination of public contracts (including excluded sectors).
• She regularly participates in the implementation and/or extension of shopping malls, from a zoning (planning, management and discipline) standpoint and from the point of view of industry-specific planning, both in processes to obtain enabling instruments for the construction, occupancy and start-up of the activity, as well as in the context of legal review processes that are conducted prior to all types of corporate and commercial transactions in this field.
• She has provided assistance to the public authorities in preparing preliminary bills and applying both statutory and regulatory legal provisions, as well as in preparing reports and opinions on constitutional issues (particularly in relation to the distribution of fundamental rights) and on institutional reorganization and changes in the form of management of public services, own resources, ports, coasts, waters, public assets, and condemnations, among others.
• She has proven experience in providing legal assistance to companies in the context of all types of administrative proceedings, including those aimed at claiming financial liability against the public authorities and, in particular in connection with penalties in all areas.

• Law Degree, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (special group).
• Doctoral courses in Commercial Law taught in the Law Department of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, between1998-1999, participating in several seminars of the Commercial Law Studies Program “Los contratos sobre productos financieros derivados: la contratación OTC y los mercados” (Contracts for financial derivatives: OTC trading and the markets) and “La publicidad engañosa” (Misleading advertising)

She has participated as speaker in numerous conferences organized by, among others, IE Business School, IIR, Instituto de Estudios Autonómicos de la CAIB and CECAP.

Member of the Madrid Bar Association. 

Author of Chapter XII “Las subvenciones públicas” (Public subsidies) included in the collective work Cuaderno de Derecho para Ingenieros (No. 38) published by Wolters Kluwer in conjunction with Iberdrola and the Engineers Association of the ICAI (December 2016 edition).