The Universidad Pontificia Comillas and the law firm Pérez-Llorca have signed a collaboration agreement to create the Pérez-Llorca/ICADE Chair on Economics and Competition Law, which will be attached to the university’s Faculty of Law (Comillas ICADE). The agreement with this leading Spanish law firm will make it possible to achieve several research and dissemination objectives, including the study of the mutual impact of economics and law and their translation into the field of competition; the analysis of the impact of legal regulation on markets and competition; the improvement of the regulatory situation in Spain and the search for formulas that improve market efficiency and favour good business practices; and research on the state’s role in the economy and its impact on markets.
For Abel Veiga, Dean of the Faculty of Law (Comillas ICADE) at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, the new Chair “was created with the aim of becoming a forum for study, research and debate on the relationship between these two social sciences – economics and law – and the impact that the interaction between the two has on markets and competition between companies and countries”. To this end, training and study seminars on economics and competition law will be organised on a regular basis, both nationally and internationally, and a multidisciplinary relationship will be established with the university’s other chairs, institutes and research centres with the aim of creating a wider and more dynamic knowledge and study network.
In the words of Pedro Pérez-Llorca, senior partner at Pérez-Llorca, “we set up this chair under the premise that law firms have a duty to contribute to the improvement and clarification of the current and future regulatory framework, as well as to the development of legal thought”. Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia, partner and head of Pérez-Llorca’s Competition practice area, stated that “this chair will seek to deepen the legal and economic interdisciplinary nature of competition law, and aims to be a source of study and dissemination of its impact on the development of national and international markets”.
Furthermore, by virtue of this agreement, a research line on economics and competition law will be launched, and to this end, the Pérez-Llorca/ICADE Chair on Economics and Competition Law will finance a PhD scholarship to train a student in the Chair’s disciplines, with the aim that this training will contribute to the completion of his or her doctoral thesis.
The signing ceremony was attended by Enrique Sanz Giménez-Rico, SJ, rector of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas; Mariano Ventosa, vice-rector for Research and Faculty; Antonio Jesús Alonso Timón, director of the Centre for Innovation in Law (CID-ICADE); Abel Veiga, dean of the Faculty of Law (Comillas ICADE); Pedro Pérez-Llorca, senior partner of Pérez-Llorca; Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia, partner and head of Pérez-Llorca’s Competition practice area; Constanza Vergara, partner and corporate director of Pérez-Llorca, Isabel Jiménez, CSR director of Pérez-Llorca and Eva Delgado, HR director of Pérez-Llorca.
This agreement reflects the excellent relationship between the university and the law firm. Comillas conferred doctor honoris causa to José Pedro Pérez-Llorca in 2018 in recognition of his role as one of the fathers of the Spanish Constitution. He received the award alongside two other authors of the Constitution: Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón and Miquel Roca i Junyent.
From left to right: Eva Delgado, HR director at Pérez-Llorca; Constanza Vergara, partner and corporate director at Pérez-Llorca; Federico de Montalvo, Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Secretary General at Comillas; Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia, competition partner at Pérez-Llorca; Enrique Sanz Giménez-Rico, rector at Universidad Pontificia Comillas; Pedro Pérez-Llorca, senior partner at Pérez-Llorca; Abel Veiga, dean of the Faculty of Law (Comillas ICADE); Mariano Ventosa, vice-rector for Research and Faculty at Comillas; Antonio Jesús Alonso Timón, director of the Centre for Innovation in Law (CIC-ICADE); and Isabel Jiménez, CSR director at Pérez-Llorca.