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Madrid
+34 91 514 52 00
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Registered lawyer, nº 46540
I. Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid
Rosa Zarza has been the Senior Partner at Garrigues since January 2024. She also heads Garrigues Sustainable and chairs the board of partners and the Firm's ESG committee.
Experience
Rosa Zarza has headed the Labor Department worldwide since 2011, leading the strongest team in the legal market in Europe with more than 200 lawyers. She was also responsible for the labor department in Portugal and in LatAm with specialized teams in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Since that same year, she has been part of the firm's management committee. In 2021, she took on leadership of Garrigues Sustainable as partner in charge and the chairmanship of the Firm's ESG Committee.
Rosa chairs the ESG Committee, which is responsible for defining and implementing the firm's sustainability strategy, including advising clients through Garrigues Sustainable, a platform that brings together over 400 professionals organized into 12 service lines to contribute to the sustainable transformation of companies from all areas of business law. Rosa also leads Garrigues' commitment to sustainability as an organization. Her view is that the first step in advising clients on their sustainable transformation is to have done your homework internally, as a company. Her impact on the firm from a social perspective has been very significant, especially in terms of equality. Rosa is a key figure in promoting the role of women in the firm and in the legal profession.
She specializes in providing strategic labor law advice to large companies and multinational groups in different sectors (technology, finance, automotive, real estate, energy and distribution, among others). She has led the advice in important and complex restructuring and reorganization processes with significant impact, and in industry-wide collective bargaining, such as the insurance industry-wide collective bargaining agreement, covering more than 74,000 employees.
She is a leading expert in senior management issues, particularly in termination processes, complex remuneration systems, corporate transactions such as mergers, spin-offs, transfers of lines of business, outsourcing and externalization processes.
Rosa Zarza is a member of the Madrid Bar Association (member no. 46.540).
She is director of the Executive ESG program at Centro de Estudios Garrigues, lecturer on the Master's Degree in Business Law at Centro de Estudios Garrigues, lecturer on the summer programs at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, lecturer on the Master's Degree in Access to the Legal Profession at Universidad Carlos III and on the Master's Degree in Access to the Legal Profession at ICAM. She is a member of the Academic Committee of FIDE and of the working group of the 21st Century Workers' Statute.
Academic background
- Law Degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1985/1989).
- Master's Degree in Labor Law from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1989/1990).
Memberships
- Honorary Member of ADiReLab (Asociación de Dirección de Relaciones Laborales).
- Member of Asnala (Asociación de Abogados Laboralistas).
- Member of the Sustainability Commission of WLW.
- Member of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Law of the University of Navarra.
- Member of the Academic Council of Fide.
- Member of the Working Group «Estatuto de los Trabajadores del siglo XXI» of Fide.
- Member of the Advisory Board of the Labor Forum of Fide.
- Member of EELA (European Employment & Labour Association).
- Member of World Services Group.
- Accelerator Programme United Nations Global Compact.
- Member of Dirse (Asociación Directivos Sostenibilidad).
- Garrigues' representative on the CEOE's Labor Relations Committee.
- Garrigues' representative on the CEOE's Education and Training Committee.
- Garrigues' representative on the CEOE's Health and Social Affairs Committee.
- Trustee of Fundación Garrigues
Distinctions
- 50 juristas más influyentes de 2024. TodoJuristas
- 30 Best Lawyers in Spain. Iberian Lawyer 2024.
- Best Lawyers in Spain. Labor & Employment Law 2025.
- 20 juristas que debes conocer. Forbes. 2024.
- World's leading practitioner. Who's Who Legal: Labor, Employment & Benefits 2024.
- Hall of Fame. The Legal 500 Spain. 2024 edition.
- Leading Lawyer in Labor Law. Leaders League 2024.
- Leading Litigation Lawyer. Leaders League 2024.
- Band 1 Employment. Chambers Europe
- 100 Leading Women in the Legal Sector 2024. Todojuristas
- Top 50 Women in the legal sector. Inspiralaw Inclusion & Diversity Iberian Lawyer 2024.
- 30 Best Lawyers. Iberian Lawyer 2024
- Stand out Lawyer. Thomsom Reuters 2024.
- Leading Litigation Lawyer. Leaders League 2023.
- Leading Lawyer in Labor Law. Leaders League 2023.
- Top Law Professors 2023. Todojuristas.
- Best Labor Lawyer of the Year Award 2023. Asnala/Santander Award.
- Finalist Best Lawyer of the Year 2023. Jurídico/Expansión Awards.
- Best Lawyers 2023.
- The 50 best women in the legal sector. Iberian Lawyer 2023.
- 100 Leading Women in the Legal Sector 2023. Todojuristas.
- Leading Women Lawyers (Band 1). Chambers 2023.
- Employment & Benefits WWL 2023 Leading Lawyer.
- Legal Influencer Q2 2023. Lexology. Clients appreciate Rosa Zarza's "high level of recognition and client commitment".
- Hall of Fame. The Legal 500 Spain. 2023 edition. Rosa Zarza - "very accessible, outstanding in knowledge and practical approach".
- Finalist for Best Innovative Lawyers Europe (Intrapeneur). Financial Times 2022.
- 20 Women Leaders of the Spanish Legal Profession. Economist & Iuris.
- Best Lawyer Client Choice Awards.
- 100 Best Women Lawyers. General Council of Lawyers.
Publications
- La relación laboral especial de los abogados en Despachos 2022 (The special employment relationship of lawyers in Law Firms 2022). Thomson Reuters Aranzadi.
- El Futuro del Trabajo en España. Impacto de las Nuevas Tendencias (The Future of Employment in Spain. Impact of New Trends). Wolters Kluwer 2019.
- Cuadernos de Derecho para Ingenieros. Las últimas Reformas del Mercado de Trabajo 2013 (Law Notebooks for Engineers. The Latest Labor Market Reforms 2013).
- España como plataforma de actividad empresarial (Spain as a platform for business activity). Co-author of the book awarded in the V edition of the Circulo Empresarios Award 1999.
- El comité de empresa europeo: una realidad (The European Works Council: a reality). El País 1996.