José María Michavila

Aligned to the UCD youth he was a founding member of the “Asociación Liberal 1812” (Liberal Association 1812).

José María Michavila Núñez (Madrid, Spain, 28 March 1960) is a lawyer, entrepreneur, professor and former Spanish politician for the People's Party (PP).

He is the founding partner of the law firm "MA ABOGADOS" and also of the wealth advisory company "MDF (Michavila de Fernando) Family Partners".

He has a degree in Contemporary History as well as a PhD in Law.

In 1984 he attained a degree in Law summa cum laude, and in 1985 graduated in Contemporary History.

In 1985 he became a professor in Administrative law in Complutense University.

In 1987 he was awarded a doctorate summa cum laude in Administrative-Economic Law after presenting a thesis about the control exercised by the Bank of Spain over the financial system.

From 1988 he practised as a Lawyer for the Council of State in the Economy and Taxation section.

During the time when he was General Secretary he contributed to create the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University and the Summer Programs at El Escorial.

The first from the British Council in 1989, then in that same year the Japanese Government also granted him another one.

He passed public examinations to become full professor of Administrative law at the UComplutense University of Madrid in 1991.

He received four fellowships.

In 1992 he contributed with other professionals of the Spanish Financial world the Instituto Estudios Bursátiles (IEB) of which he was its first secretary.

He was an MP in the Spanish Parliament from 1993 to 2009 and a member of the Government of Spain during the eight years that José María Aznar was Prime Minister (1996- 2004).

Then in 1993 he received a fellowship from the French Government and in 1994 from the United States.

He carried out postgraduate studies at the universities of Harvard and the London School of Economics (LSE).

He entered politics in 1993 when he was elected to the Spanish Congress of Deputies representing Madrid region.

On 6 February 1993, in the People's Party's XI Congress and as a nomination of its president José María Aznar he was elected as secretary of Studies and Programs.

In this role he led the creation of the manifestos for the first European elections won by the PP (1994), also the local elections (1995) and the parliamentary elections (1996).

Between 1996 and 2000 he served as Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes.

He served as Secretary of State for Justice between 2000 and 2002 when he was promoted to Minister of Justice until 2004 in the government of José María Aznar.

On 3 September 2002 Michavila brought an action against the Basque party Batasuna that he called “the claim of democracy against terrorism”.

That resulted in the party being banned as it was considered the political wing of ETA.

During the time Michavila was Minister of Justice, Spain promoted the creation of a mechanism that allowed countries in the European Union to extradite terrorist suspects quicker, the European Arrest Warrant.

Since then until 2004 he was a member of the National Executive Committee.

Along with Ángel Acebes he promoted the anti-terrorist Act and the State Act to reform the justice system.

The Law of Political Parties was created as a result of those agreements.

In its Preamble I it says “ The aim is to guarantee the functioning of the democratic system and the essential freedoms of citizens by preventing a political party from repeatedly and seriously undermining this democratic regime of freedoms, justifying racism and xenophobia or politically supporting violence and the activities of terrorist groups”.

In March 2004, after the Madrid train bombings where 191 people were killed, the PP lost the general election.

After 11 years in politics Michavila returned to his previous professional activity.

In 2006 he moved to London with his family.

In 2006 he was designated Senior Advisor of RBC (Royal Bank of Canada).

In June 2008 he founded a Family Office, MdF Family Partners, with the former banker of JP Morgan, Daniel de Fernando.

It has branches in Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City, New York, Miami and London.

This entity gives legal counsel to more than 100 families from 11 nationalities.

For the 2000 election he switched to Valencia region which he has represented until 3 September 2009.

From 2010 until 2016 he was Senior Advisor for JP Morgan IF from where he represented the entity at NOATUM Council.

During those same years he was a member of the global advisor board of Oliver Wyman.

He is the father of five children with Irene Vázquez Romero, who died on 22 November 2013.

Before entering the public eye, he studied two majors in the Complutense University of Madrid.