By Armando Fernández-Aramburu León, Founding Partner
It´s said that when a man thinks more about the past than he does about the future, he starts to get old. In keeping with this opinion, I would say that having to give an historic outline of the Montero|Aramburu practice, to focus my thoughts on memories of the past would mean I am getting old, albeit slowly. But this is not the case, because he who gives an account of something, does so not because he is uninterested in the future, but because an interpretation of any snippet from the past immediately occupies his thoughts, however recent, however important or significant. I am, of course, getting older, but because of the passage of time, not because I recount the history of an office founded in late 1971 by my partner – unfortunately now deceased – José Luis Montero Gómez (Salamanca, 1928) and myself, Armando Fernández-Arámburu León (Seville, 1926).
From the outset, our firm has been defined by its affection and humanity in dealing with clients.
José Luis Montero Gómez (Salamanca, 1928 – Seville, 2000) graduated from the Universidad de Salamanca in 1949 with a degree in Law. He became a member of the Seville Bar Association in 1971.He began his administrative career in Ceuta in 1951 as a civil servant at the Ministry of Finance by passing the exam to join the official body of technicians at the service of the Treasury.
After spending a year on his first assignment, in 1952 he was transferred to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he prepared for and passed the exam to join the official body of certified tax inspectors (the equivalent of today’s federal tax inspector inspectors), joining the agency in 1954 and being assigned to the tax office in the city of Logroño. In 1955, he requested a transfer and obtained a position as a certified tax inspector at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife tax office.
Armando Fernández-Arámburu León (Seville, 1926-2015) earned a Commercial Intendant degree from Seville’s Escuela de Comercio in 1945, and in 1955 sat for the exam to join the official body of intendants at the service of the Treasury (the equivalent of today’s federal tax inspector inspectors), also known as “liquidadores de utilidades” (utility liquidators), who are mainly responsible for corporate tax settlements. He obtained his first assignment as inspector in 1955 at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife tax office, where he met José Luis Montero and where the two spent eight years in their respective positions, until 1962 when Armando received his first assignment on the mainland, as a tax inspector in Cádiz.A year later, in 1963, José Luis also left Santa Cruz de Tenerife for his fifth and final assignment, as an inspector for the tax office in Seville. Armando joined him at the same branch in 1966.Together they worked for the Treasury for another five years until in 1971 José Luis and Armando requested a leave of absence to establish MONTERO|ARAMBURU ABOGADOS and start a new phase in their professional career, after serving as civil servants for 18 years.Armando graduated from the Universidad de Seville with a degree in Law in 1971. He became a Chartered Accountant in 1976, and a member of the Seville Bar Association in 1972. He was named Honorary Chairman of the firm in 2004.