Maria Clara Munera received her law degree from the Pontifical Bolivariana University (Medellin, Colombia) in 1992. In 1996 she obtained a Specialization on the Legal, Finance and Accounting Regime, of Taxes from Andes University (Bogota, Colombia). She was a COLFUTURO scholarship recipient and attended Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) where she obtained an LL.M. and graduated cum laude in 2000.

She started her professional career as a lawyer in Dr. Ignacio Sanín Bernal´s office in commercial law, corporate and contract areas. She then joined Baker & McKenzie in Bogota in the Intellectual Property area, working in the trademark area. When she returned to Medellin, she worked for Cadenalco S.A (presently Éxito Group) in the Legal Department, where she was in charge of contracts, corporate matters, technology transfer contracts, licence agreements, and regulatory affairs. Later, she worked at Confecciones Colombia S.A where she oversaw market access and made part of the textile and manufacturing sector committee that traveled to Washington D.C on several occasions to lobby the U.S Congress for the renovation of tariff preferences (ATPA and ATPDA). At OlarteMoure she is partner and head of the Medellin office, managing several IP portfolios for local clients.