Profile

María José is an Associate at Adell & Merizalde and an Assistant Professor at the University of Los Andes. Her practice focuses on international commercial and investment arbitration and on public international law. She has been involved in highly complex international arbitrations in industries such as mining, telecommunications, and financial services.

Before joining the firm, she worked as a legal extern at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and Colombia’s National Agency for the Legal Defense of the State (ANDJE). During her work in both institutions, she acquired significant knowledge of investor-State dispute settlement proceedings.

She also has experience in human rights law, working for the rights of inmates, acting as a member of the Latin American and Caribbean legal clinic of the Media Freedom Legal Panel, and partaking in the submission of petitions, amicus curiae briefs, and lawsuits before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

María José has also held academic positions as researcher in projects from over 30 countries, including the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), and published articles in peer-reviewed journals on investment arbitration practices in Latin America.

Additionally, she currently works as an assistant professor of Public International Law at Universidad de los Andes and as a coach of the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.