35 years working as a practicing lawyer under the premises that our client´s rights have been and will be my duty.
As I was eating my last grape as 2022 made its way into 2023 I realised that I will have been a lawyer for 35 years this year. I studied at Malaga Law School at the University, and like a few lawyers once I had qualified I made my way to Madrid to start my legal career.
Those of you who are a lot younger than I am will not remember the pre-Internet days, even the fax machine was in its early years, like something out of Star Trek to be able to send pieces of paper across the world. I have to say birthday greetings were popular and it wasn’t all legal work. Special points if you can remember to work with carbon paper and typewriters. It was certainly a whole different world back then.
Having grown up in Malaga and Tenerife it was a sight to see snow and frost for the first time before going to work every day. For me, at this time, snow was just for fun or skiing. It won’t long before I returned to Malaga to open my own law firm in 1992.
I remember the first mobile phones, we were grateful when a call was made. We never complained about dropped calls and failed connections. In Marbella, I remember that there were only 12 lines and we soon got to know each as we had to ask people how long they would be so that we could make a call. Now we complain when we don’t have 5G or if we have 2 phone calls at the same time.
Now the work in the legal profession is completely different with the advent of the internet looking for legal cases in a huge amount of books on shelves paying a fortune to get them every month. I have to say that traditionally lawyers use be slow to adopt new digital technology. This was not our case; since a few years ago we are fully integrated into the digital world. In fact,it’s rare for our client to come and sit in our conference room as the biggest part of them prefer to have a video conferences.
Today, we have lawyers specialised in different legal matters and also qualified tax advisors and accountants. We have to ensure that clients both business and private receive a full service.
From my beginnings in Málaga, afterward, in Fuengirola, we now have additional offices in Marbella, but again thanks to the new digital age we cover the whole of Spain and with our English Barrister John Towell we can help clients with their legal issues in the UK. We have plans underway to have dual-qualified UK and Spanish Solicitors.
We have been helping our clients from all around the world. Relocating or moving to Spain, asisting and advising with theirs visas, residence and work permits, property purchase, setting their business, company formation, taxes, inheritance, wills etc.
Looking forward to 2023 I hope that the driving license exchange for UK citizens will happen. Once it does we will be publishing a guide so that you can hopefully do this yourself.
The digital nomad visa in Spain is now in place and applications have started for those lucky enough to live in Spain and work remotely. The golden visa remains at 500,000 euros a considerable sum but so far unchanged in these times of high inflation. The Non Lucrative Visa is a good option to be considered, Remember if your Spanish grandparent was born in Spain you can apply for a Spanish passport. There are other avenues to living and working in the EU for example if you have an Italian relative going back to 186 you can get an Italian passport and Italian citizenship. We have an Italian lawyer registered with the Spanish bar association Roberto who can help with this.
If you’re buying a house in Spain choose your own independent lawyer and don’t sign or pay anything until you’ve had advice, just like you would in say the United Kingdom. We can, of course, help but you have a huge choice of lawyers for your move to Spain, just make sure you get their Bar Association registration number, this is your warranty.
In addition to being a lawyer, I am also the Consul for Denmark looking after the needs of Danish expats. We will see what the next 35 years bring.
For all your legal needs in Spain, we are your law firm.
For your peace of mind Just Law Solicitors since 1992 www.justlawsolicitors.com
Malaga – Fuengirola – Marbella
Online and in-person legal services
WhatsApp +34 663 373 535
contact@justlawsolicitors.com
