Third Cuatrecasas Challenge announces winners

Cuatrecasas (Madrid office) has closed the third Cuatrecasas Challenge, a benchmark national competition in the field of business law. After several months of hard work and effort by the 14 participating law students, this edition's winning pair was made up of Maider Baigorri, from Universidad del País Vasco, and Iván García, from Universidad de Alicante. Carlos Santos, from Universidad de Cordoba, and Patricia Medrano, from Universidad de Navarra were the other finalists. Both pairs will receive financial support to study the Master for Admission to the Practice of Law or a dual master’s degree program with a specialization, plus the opportunity to complete an internship in their preferred practice area at Cuatrecasas. Because of the outstanding level shown by the students, the jury made special mention of the best speakers: the pair made up of Rocío Membrives, from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Rodrigo León, from Universidad de Zaragoza.

Iván García said: “This was my first direct contact with what could be a real case, which has made me grow beyond my studies at an academic level, to levels I did not expect.” Maider Baigorri recommends participating in the Cuatrecasas Challenge because “it is a challenge where you will learn outside the classroom with the privilege of exchanging knowledge with lawyers from a firm like Cuatrecasas.”

In December, Cuatrecasas selected 14 participants out of 78 candidates from 36 universities. After forming pairs and receiving the case, the participants delivered their first written defense in February. The competition culminated on March 7 with an oral defense where the students demonstrated their procedural skills and abilities in cooperating and working as a team in a multidisciplinary case—created and proposed by the Cuatrecasas Knowledge and Innovation Group—addressing key issues in business law that affect the following areas: Tax, Corporate and M&A, Public Law, Antitrust and Competition, and Labor and Employment.

In the final stage, each pair defended their written work, presented their main arguments and then answered questions from the jury, made up of four partners from different groups at the firm: Almudena Batista (Labor and Employment), Daniel Coloma (Tax), Rosa M. Gual (Restructuring) and Miguel Sánchez (Finance).

When discussing this third Cuatrecasas Challenge, Rosa M. Gual said: “This competition is just a sample of the students’ talent. It has been a privilege for all of us members of the jury. The competition was very close, and they have shown us that the new generation has excellent oratory skills and that they are terrific at conflict and case resolution.”

That this is the competition’s third consecutive year is a clear sign of the great interest it generates among Spanish law students. The balance of this year’s Cuatrecasas Challenge could not be more positive: the involvement, work capacity and talent demonstrated by the young participants are the driving force behind Cuatrecasas’ decision to start working on the fourth edition, which will return with another opportunity for students to demonstrate that they are the future talents of law.