Maria was admitted in the Portuguese Bar Association in 1977.

She graduated in the University of Lisbon as a Lawyer. Maria always felt attracted by the International practice and to achieve this goal she attended different courses in international institutions and developed different skills.

She was an active member of AIJA and later joined IBA being at present a member of this association, as well as of Association Européene des Avocats (AEA) International Technology Law Association (ITechLaw), APDE – Associação Portuguesa de Direito Europeu (Portuguese Association of European Law), several Chambers of Commerce in Portugal.

For the last 15 years she has been acting, among others, for some pharma and health matters companies, including the regulatory aspects they involve. The office deals with corporate and related matters such as IP, tax, labour, contract, property, IP and administrative law, debt recovery and insolvencies.

Lopes Dias & Associados has been the Portuguese member of Conférence Bleue, the European network gathering lawyers who specialise in Pharma & Health matters.

Maria is the Senior partner of Lopes Dias & Associados – Sociedade de Advogados, that she founded in 1994 and went through some changes in structure.

Maria is the author of articles on legal matters, published in international magazines.