Vanessa Rubiras, Legal Director at Alting, has participated in the publication of the book Manual de Derecho Inmobiliario along with Rafael Moreno Ubric, founding partner of INUR | Abogados, and other experts from the fields of law and real estate.
This is a handbook targeted at students, lawyers and agents participating in the real estate market which sequentially analyzes all the processes related to real estate law.
With a Bachelor’s in Law from the University of Barcelona, Vanessa Rubiras started her career in internationally renowned law firms like MANUBENS, JAUSAS and RAMON Y CAJAL. Specializing in trial and real estate law, she advised companies in the sector for more than 15 years until 2018, when she joined the Alting Real Estate Group team.
Vanessa is currently the Legal Director at Alting, where she leads and manages all the legal issues of the company and its properties and serves on the company's Management and Executive Committee.
After publishing the Handbook on Real Estate Law in early April, today we are bringing you an interview where Vanessa tells us how she came to specialize in this field of law and her experience as one of the book's authors.
Why did you specialize in real estate law?
My family has always been involved in the real estate sector, so it was somewhat natural that I would specialize in that field. I always found it exciting because it's a very broad field which is constantly changing. Plus, as a lawyer, it allows you to develop not only your legal skills but also strategy, business development, expansion, etc., which makes it really fascinating work.
How did the idea of writing a Handbook on Real Estate Law come up?
The idea came from Rafael Moreno, the director and coordinator of the Handbook, whom I met in Madrid in 2014 as an opposing attorney in a major trial, which left us with enormous mutual professional respect for each other.
Years later, in 2019, he got in touch with me to offer me the possibility of participating in this project when he realized that there was virtually no handbook on the market that encompassed all the matters related to real estate law.
He told me that he didn’t want it to be a typical theoretical handbook but that it had to be didactic and especially practical, with contributions from different kinds of professionals (notaries, registrars, professors, practicing lawyers, etc.) from different regions of Spain to give it a broader vision.
The fact is I didn't think twice about it. I thought it was a really fascinating project.
What chapters did you participate in?
I wrote two chapters: one on urban leases and the other on horizontal property. Those are two topics I'm very familiar with, so I hope with my experience I was able to share knowledge that will be useful to anyone interested in the topic.
What was the experience like? What was it like to work on this project during COVID?
Despite the effort of eating into my free time to write it and the sudden outbreak of COVID, overall it was honestly a very positive experience. The reward comes when you see the end result and realize that despite the responsibility it entails, you have contributed to a project with nationwide importance.
This project enabled me to learn more about the topics that I wrote about, as well as the topics that my colleagues wrote.
