From the Outside Looking Back In: Confessions of a Former In-House Counsel
About Maria Hernandez:
Maria Hernández is Partner at Eversheds in Spain, leading the Compliance department within the Firm.
Before joining Eversheds Nicea, Maria was the Head of Legal for the Southern European Region and the Head of Compliance in Europe at Pentair. Prior to that, she has also led the Legal and Compliance departments of the European and Middle East operations at large multinationals. This has included her appointment as Ombudsman of the Tyco International Group which led her to be based in the United States between 2010 and 2012 and where she reported to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.
Following the split of Tyco International into three publicly traded companies in 2012, Maria relocated back to Europe to build the regional Compliance department and manage the southern European legal operations of one of the separated companies which immediately merged with Pentair.
She developed part of her early career in Latin America, based out of Buenos Aires. Later in her legal career, she has been involved in several compliance related matters (training, investigations) in the Region.
Maria’s professional career has led to her winning several awards in the legal & compliance field including being named as The Corporate Compliance Lawyer of the Year (Spain & Portugal) at the 2014 Golden Awards Iberian Lawyer and winning the Outstanding Award as Best Business lawyer under 40 in 2011 (Awards 40 under 40).
She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Compliance Professionals (“Asociación de Profesionales de Cumplimiento Normativo (CUMPLEN”), the largest Compliance Association in Spain.
Maria is the Director of the Corporate Compliance studies at ESADE Law School and Director of International Corporate Compliance at LLM in International Business at Instituto de Empresa (ranked No. 3 Law School worldwide in LLM studies). She is also a frequent writer in specialized magazines and books.
Maria is a frequent speaker on Corporate Ethics and Compliance at international conferences, including the International Law Office Annual General Counsel Awards in New York, 2012.
She holds a Law degree from the University Complutense of Madrid, a degree on European Law from the Universidad San Pablo CEU in Madrid and a Post-degree in European Union Law and Economics by Université La Sorbonne in Paris. She has lived and worked in several countries (Spain, United Kingdom, Argentina, France, Italy and USA) and is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian.
