Miguel de Serpa Soares was appointed the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel in September 2013. He oversees the Office of Legal Affairs, the overall objectives of which are to provide a unified central legal service for the United Nations. Mr. Serpa Soares has extensive experience of legal and international affairs, having represented his country in various bilateral and multilateral international forums, including the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, the Committee of Public International Law Advisers of the Council of Europe, the International Criminal Court’s Assembly of State Parties, and the International Law Working Group of the EU Council. Before taking up his current position, Mr. Serpa Soares was Director-General of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal from 2008. Between 1999 and 2008, he was the Legal Adviser of the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU in Brussels. Mr. Serpa Soares has a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon and a degree in European Law from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. He is a member of a number of entities in the field of International Law and has given lectures on topics of International Law in different Universities worldwide