Miguel de Serpa Soares is the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel. He oversees the Office of Legal Affairs, the overall objectives of which are to provide a unified central legal service for the United Nations.

Before taking up his current position, Serpa Soares was Director General of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal from 2008. Serpa Soares has also served as Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague since 2010. Earlier in his career, he acted as Legal Adviser to the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union, Brussels (1999-2008).

Born in Angola in 1967, Serpa Soares holds a degree in law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he also served as Assistant Lecturer from 1989 to 1993, and a Diplôme de Hautes Etudes Juridiques Européennes, Collège d’Europe, Bruges.

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