There are at least two instances in legal contexts in which administrador and “administrator” may be false cognates. In the context of corporate law, administrador does not generally refer to an “administrator,”·but rather to a company “director.” For example, in Spain business entities may choose among four possible corporate management structures. Management may be entrusted to an administrador único (“sole director”), two or more administradores mancomunados (“joint directors;” “directors acting jointly”), administradores solidarios (“joint and several directors;” “directors acting jointly and severally”) or a consejo de administración (“board of directors”), which may be called a directorio or junta directiva in other Spanish-speaking jurisdictions. In that regard, “directors” are known variously as consejeros or “board members” or “members of the board” (miembros del consejo, miembros del directorio or miembros de la junta directiva).

In other respects, in English and in the context of inheritance law (Derecho de sucesiones), a person appointed by a court to settle the estate of an intestate decedent (causante que ha muerto intestado) or of a decedent testator who failed to appoint an executor (albacea) is known as an “administrator” (called albacea judicial or albacea dativo in Spanish). It is worth noting that formerly “administrator” denoted a male court-appointed executor of a will, while if that task were performed by a woman, she was known as an “administratrix” (plural: “administratrixes,” or “administratrices”), terms that have now largely fallen in disuse.