Rafael Escalera-Rodríguez

Litigation, franchising, distribution, sales representation, civil rights, regulated markets, antitrust, products liability. Active in federal appellate practice before the Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

Mr Escalera obtained his BA in Humanities Magna Cum Laude and JD Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico Law School, where he graduated first in his class and obtained West’s Publishing Co. prize to the best student in Anglo-American law, the Puerto Rico Bar Association Medal and the Manuel Rodríguez Ramos Medal. He holds a Master's degree in law from Harvard University. Fluent in Spanish, English and French, he supervises Reichard & Escalera's general litigation work. He has handled some of the most notable cases in the areas of franchising and distribution law as well as in the civil rights and regulated market areas. He has been lead counsel in several certiorari petitions filed before the United States Supreme Court. He has taught at two Puerto Rico law schools. He was Editor in Chief of the University of Puerto Rico Law Review and Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of Puerto Rico, as well as member of the Puerto Rico Board of Bar Examiners. Mr Escalera was co-lead counsel for the prevailing litigant in the 2004 federal litigation arising out of that year’s gubernatorial election. In the year 2012, Mr Escalera was lead counsel for the prevailing party in a case that changed a decades-old doctrine regarding the applicability to Puerto Rico of the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. He is handling the biggest franchising case in Puerto Rico. He is also lead counsel in the most important regulated market case ever litigated in Puerto Rico and represents some creditors in Puerto Rico's debt restructuring process, the largest process of this kind in the history of the United States. Mr Escalera was recently appointed as member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Puerto Rico Law Review.

Federal Bar Association, American Bar Association, Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico. Former Vice-Chairman of the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, Former Member of the Puerto Rico Board of Bar Examiners, Former Lecturer at the UPR and Catholic Universities Schools of Law, Former Member Board of Governors of the University of Puerto Rico.

"Mirando al Futuro a los 80". 81 UPR Law Review 1081 (2012)