María Teresa Szendrey-Ramos concentrates her practice in trademark prosecution, intellectual property counseling, and trusts and estate planning.
Prior to joining McConnell Valdés, Tere was a shareholder at a major San Juan law firm, where she helped create and manage one of Puerto Rico’s preeminent intellectual property law practice groups. She has advised clients in multiple and complex trademark, copyright, trade secret, moral rights of authors, and right of publicity issues under local and federal law, advice which she has provided in transactions and in the daily challenges faced by individuals and corporations in these highly technical areas of the law.
Tere acted as lead IP counsel in one of the most complex art-related Intellectual Property cases in Puerto Rico, the case of the Estate of Julio Rosado Del Valle against his widow, Sonia Acevedo Marrero. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court held that unsold works of visual arts left by an artist upon his death are not community property and therefore are not co-owned by the spouse. The case settled important IP and family law questions.
In the trusts and estates field, her practice includes succession and estate planning for family-owned businesses. She has drafted numerous complex wills and testamentary trusts and has advised Puerto Rico and to non-Puerto Rico residents on estate planning .
Tere was member of the Trademark Act Reform Commission of the Puerto Rico Department of State’s Trademark Office, where she was a leading voice in the process that resulted in the enactment of the 2009 Puerto Rico Trademark Act. She has also served as member of the Puerto Rico Bar Board of Examiners, the Puerto Rico Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Commission, the Enterprise Launching Committee of the Successful Women Program of a major Puerto Rican financial services institution and as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Partnership for a Drug Free Puerto Rico.
She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Puerto Rico Law School where she teaches Intellectual Property and frequently participates as an intellectual property CLE instructor.
After graduating from law school, she clerked for the Honorable Federico Hernández Denton, who served as Chief Justice for the Puerto Rico Supreme Court from 2009 to 2014.
Credentials
Bar Admissions
- Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Education
B.A., Magna Cum Laude, University of Puerto Rico
J.D., Magna Cum Laude, University of Puerto Rico School of Law
LL.M., Columbia University
Memberships
Puerto Rico Bar Association
American Bar Association
Honors & Recognition
She is ranked as one of Puerto Rico’s Leading Attorneys in the Intellectual Property field by the renowned international publication Chambers & Partners in its Latin America Guide.
Tere is also ranked as a Leading Attorney in the Intellectual Property Law field of the Best Lawyers in Puerto Rico guide, a publication that has awarded her the Lawyer of the Year accolade in Intellectual Property Law (2016) and in Trusts & Estates (2024).
Community Involvement
Tere is a valued and active contributor of McV’s Pro Bono Program, demonstrating a strong commitment to service and social impact.
She is member of the Board of Directors of the Fundación del Hospital Pediátrico, a non-profit organization that raises funds aimed at improving the physical facilities of the Hospital Pediátrico Universitario Dr. Antonio Ortíz, especially in areas of patient care and parental rest. It also donates equipment for monitoring and treatment of patients and intervenes in any other initiative that may help provide better services to the patients.
