Miriam González Durántez, Lady Clegg (born 31 May 1968) is a Spanish

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...

lawyer, vice chair of UBS Europe, and founder of Inspiring Girls. She is married to

Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. H ...

, who served as

Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom is an honorific title given to a minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet, normally to signify a very senior minister, the deputy leader of the governing party, or a key political ...

from 2010 to 2015.

Early life

Miriam González Durántez was born to two teachers in Olmedo, in the Spanish

province of Valladolid Valladolid () is a province of northwest Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It has a population of 525,398 across a total of 225 municipalities, an area of , meaning a population density of 64.77 people ...

. Her father, José Antonio González Caviedes, was also

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Olmedo and served as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for Valladolid for the conservative People's Party (PP) from 1989 until he died in 1996.González Caviedes, José Antonio
SENADORES (HISTORIA) She studied law at the

University of Valladolid The University of Valladolid is a public university located in the city of Valladolid, Valladolid province, autonomous region of Castile and Leon, Spain. Established in the 13th century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. The ...

and then won a postgraduate scholarship to the

College of Europe The College of Europe (; ; ) is a post-graduate institute of European studies with three campuses in Bruges, Belgium; Warsaw, Poland; and Tirana, Albania. The College of Europe in Bruges was founded in 1949 as a result of the 1948 Congress of ...

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. She met

, and continued to work in Brussels.

Career

Having previously worked as a trade negotiator and advisor on trade law, and relations with the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

to both the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the

British Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

, González Durántez is a partner at Cohen & Gresser, where she is co-chair of the firm's International Trade and Government Regulation practice. Prior to that, she worked at

Dechert Dechert LLP (; ) is a multinational American law firm of more than 900 lawyers with practices in corporate and securities, complex litigation, finance and real estate, financial services, asset management, and private equity. In 2021, the firm r ...

and

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a law firm with offices in over 40 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It was founded in 2005 through the merger between three law firms: San Diego–based ''Gray Cary Ware & Freiden ...

for six years. González Durántez is considered an expert on

European Union law European Union law is a system of Supranational union, supranational Law, laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). It has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote ...

and regulation, and co-authored the book ''Regulatory Aspects of the WTO Telecoms Agreements''. She is a Member of the European Council of Foreign Relations. Since October 2013 González Durántez has been the honorary president of Canning House in London, the home of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Council. González Durántez is vice chair of

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

Europe. Until 2018, she was a member of Board and chair of the Audit and Remuneration Committees of UBS UK (UBSL). She was also on the Board of Directors of

Acciona Acciona, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational conglomerate dedicated to the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy. The company, via subsidiary Acciona Energía, produces 21 ...

, S.A. between June 2010 and July 2014. González published the book
Devuélveme el Poder
' on Spanish politics in October 2019. She also published the cookbook, ''Made In Spain: Recipes and stories from my country and beyond'' in 2016. González is the chair and founder of international charity, Inspiring Girls. Active globally in 14 countries, the charity aims to raise the aspirations of young girls by connecting them with female role models. The Inspiring Girls Video Hub is due for launch in Autumn 2019.

Personal life

González Durántez dated the British politician

for several years in Brussels before they married in 2000. The couple have three sons. She insisted on giving their children Spanish names if they were to have the family name "Clegg". She is a practising

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and the couple agreed that their children would be raised as such, though her husband is agnostic. She has not taken British citizenship and so, as an EU citizen who is not a Commonwealth or Irish citizen, she can vote in local and European elections; but not at UK general elections. González Durántez spoke of her relationship with the United Kingdom in a 2014 interview stating that after living in the country she:

"felt a freedom that I had never felt before in my life, a freedom to be myself. I come from a culture, in Spain, in Brussels, where, if you want to be a lawyer, you study law, if you want to be an economist, you study economy. Whatever you do early in your life determines what you do later on. When I came here, I went for lots of chats with people because I didn't know what to do. And pretty much all of them said, 'What do you want to do?' And I was like, 'Me? You want to know what I think? I have a choice?'"

As of 2021, González Durántez lives in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

2010 UK general election campaign

When Sarah Brown and

Samantha Cameron Samantha Gwendoline Cameron, Baroness Cameron of Chipping Norton (; born 18 April 1971), is an English businesswoman. Until 2010, she was the creative director of Smythson of Bond Street. She is married to David Cameron, who served as Prime ...

became increasingly involved in the media and 2010 UK general election campaigns, González Durántez publicly said that she would be willing to help with the campaign but, unlike Cameron, she would be unable to take time off from work and her family life to take part. Asked by a Spanish newspaper whether she would quit her job, González Durántez said that "If Nick were Prime Minister and I had to give up my job to support the country, I would have no problem in doing so."

Bibliography

* ''Made In Spain: Recipes and stories from my country and beyond'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2016) * ''Devuélveme el Poder: Why a liberal reform is needed in Spain'' (Península, Planeta, 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez Durantez, Miriam 1968 births Living people People from the Province of Valladolid Spanish Roman Catholics Spouses of British politicians 20th-century Spanish lawyers Spanish emigrants to the United Kingdom College of Europe alumni Clegg family Spanish food writers Cookbook writers Wives of knights Women food writers Spanish expatriates in the United States 20th-century Spanish women lawyers