Matea Belačić Pleše was born on 18 September 1986 in Zagreb. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, having defended her thesis on the topic of the ISRD3 Study on Juvenile Delinquency in the City of Zagreb. She completed her traineeship at a law firm, where she primarily worked in civil, commercial and enforcement law matters. After passing the bar examination in 2016, she joined the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb as a judicial adviser, a position she held until 2019. She then worked as a state attorney’s adviser at the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) until 2022, when she joined the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia as an adviser, a position she holds to this day. During her work at the law firm, the courts and the State Attorney’s Office, she attended numerous seminars and training courses. At the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb, she gave a lecture on the topic of the Act on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlements. In cooperation with Professor Anna-Marija Getoš Kalac, PhD, she co-authored an article for Balkan Criminology News.