Our History
Rodríguez & Mendoza was founded in 1910 by two brilliant and distinguished attorneys. Dr. José Santiago Rodríguez, who among many other positions and activities held, was a founding member of the Venezuelan Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Vice President of the Republic's highest court, Permanent Member of the Hague Court of Arbitration, mediator alongside the United States of America in the conflict between Honduras and Nicaragua, and Venezuelan Ambassador to the Republic of Colombia. And Dr. Cristóbal L. Mendoza, attorney, litigator, professor of Roman Law and Public International Law at the Central University of Venezuela, historical researcher, founding member and full member of the Venezuelan Academy of Political and Social Sciences from 1915, full member of the National Academy of History from 1928, Minister of Finance in 1937, member of the Venezuelan delegation at the Bretton Woods Conference, and first Legal Counsel of the Central Bank of Venezuela.
By 1930, Rodríguez & Mendoza had already established itself as one of the most prominent law firms in the country, particularly in the energy sector, counting among its clients the leading international oil companies operating in Venezuela at the time, as well as providing legal services to many of the industrial, banking, and insurance companies that were beginning to emerge in Venezuela during that period.
Since then, Rodríguez & Mendoza has consolidated its position as one of Venezuela's leading law firms, with particular prominence in the areas of oil and energy, banking and insurance, taxation, manufacturing, corporate law, and labor law. Currently, more than 50% of our client portfolio consists of international companies in the energy (oil, gas and related services), banking, financial, capital markets, steel, pharmaceutical, industrial, services, and consumer goods sectors.
A large number of the firm's attorneys and partners have been and continue to be law professors at major universities in the country, and have contributed through their books, articles, and opinions to the formation and development of the country's legal doctrine.