Maria José Costeira

Maria José Costeira graduated in law from the Faculty of Law of the Universidade de Coimbra (University of Coimbra, Portugal) in 1991 and pursued postgraduate studies in intellectual property law at the Faculty of Law of the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon, Portugal) in 2001.

A trainee lawyer at the Coimbra Bar (Portugal) from 1991 to 1992, she joined the Centro de Estudos Judiciários (National School for the Judiciary, Portugal) as a judicial trainee in 1992. Appointed as a judge in 1995, she served at the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Cascais (District Court, Cascais, Portugal), the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Ferreira do Zêzere (District Court, Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal) and the Tribunal da Pequena Instância Criminal de Lisboa (Criminal Court, Lisbon, Portugal) from 1995 to 1997, at the Tribunal do Comércio da Comarca de Lisboa (Commercial Court, Lisbon, Portugal) from 1999 to 2016, and at the Tribunal da Relação de Coimbra (Court of Appeal, Coimbra, Portugal) in 2016. Her activities within the judiciary were not limited to handling cases and she was also involved in representing the judiciary in her capacity as Secretary-General of the Association of Portuguese Judges from 2012 to 2015 and, subsequently, as President of that association until 2016.

Since 2003, Ms Costeira has taught intellectual property law, competition law and commercial law as a visiting professor at the faculties of law of the Universidade de Lisboa, the Universidade de Coimbra, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (New University of Lisbon, Portugal) and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal, Portugal), at the Escola de Direito da Universidade do Minho (School of Law of the University of Minho, Portugal) and at the Centro de Estudos Judiciários.

Ms Costeira was appointed as a Judge at the General Court of the European Union on 19 September 2016 and was elected by her peers as President of Chamber on 30 September 2019.