María Dolores holds a Law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid. She gained admission to the judicial career and later to the public prosecutor’s career through competitive examination.

She began her career as a prosecutor at the Provincial Public Prosecutor’s Office of Gipuzkoa before moving to the National Court’s Public Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía de la Audiencia Nacional), where she served for more than 17 years. In 1999, she was appointed prosecutor at the Supreme Court, a position she held until 2007, when she voluntarily left the public prosecutor’s career to focus on legal practice.

She is the author of several publications on substantive and procedural criminal law and is a frequent speaker at legal courses and conferences.