José Pedro Pérez-Llorca (Cádiz, 1940 – Madrid, 2019) was the founding partner of Pérez-Llorca. A tireless lawyer, great conversationalist and esteemed colleague, his legal knowledge and personality have distinguished and defined the firm as it exists today.
A life dedicated to law
At one stage in his career, José Pedro Pérez-Llorca played a prominent role in Spanish politics, despite always being considered, first and foremost, a lawyer. In addition to being Member for Madrid of the Union of the Democratic Centre (“Unión de Centro Democrático”), he was President of the Centrist party in Congress, and one of the seven drafters of the Spanish Constitution.
José Pedro was a member of the Diplomatic Service and the “Cuerpo de Letrados de las Cortes Generales”, and was subsequently Head of Cabinet and Parliamentary Affairs, Minister of Territorial Administration and Foreign Minister. Whilst serving in this last position, he started the negotiations for Spain’s accession to the EU and completed six chapters of the total sixteen. He was also instrumental in the signing of a new treaty with the US, and was the driving force behind Spain’s accession to NATO.
In December 1982, José Pedro retired from political life and founded the firm Pérez-Llorca where he held the position of President. He specialised in arbitration, and was renowned as an arbitrator and lawyer in both Spanish and international proceedings.
He held a Degree in Law from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and was awarded a prize for extraordinary achievement. He received scholarships to study at Universität Freiburg, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the University of London, and worked in Spanish, English, French and German. He was awarded four Honorary Doctorates in Law, from UNED de Madrid (1988), Universidad de León (2004), Universidad Europea (2018) and ICADE (2018). In 2012, Universidad de Cádiz also awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Pérez-Llorca for being one of the drafters of the current Spanish Constitution. From October 2012 until 2019, José Pedro was President of the Board of Trustees of the Prado Museum.
