Ramón Azpúrua

Ramón Azpúrua is a founding partner of WDA Legal and leads the firm’s Corporate/M&A practice. He focuses on domestic and cross-border corporate transactions, foreign investment and the structuring of multi-jurisdictional businesses, advising multinational companies, investor groups and privately held businesses on acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations, shareholder arrangements, governance, financing and complex commercial contracts.

His practice is particularly focused on helping international clients structure, operate and protect investments in Venezuela. He advises on market entry and exit strategies, investment structures, venture capital, project and asset-backed financing, distribution and franchise arrangements, technology licensing and transfer agreements, and the corporate and regulatory aspects of transactions in regulated sectors. His experience spans industries including energy and oil and gas, insurance and financial services, technology, pharmaceuticals, maritime transport, entertainment and consumer-facing businesses.

Ramón also maintains a substantial regulatory, compliance and business ethics practice. He advises multinational companies on anti-corruption, conflicts of interest, internal investigations, compliance programme design and implementation, sanctions-related issues and the identification and mitigation of legal and compliance risks. This work frequently forms part of broader transactional and investment mandates, allowing him to integrate corporate structuring with regulatory risk management and international compliance standards.

His international trade practice includes cross-border commercial arrangements, import and distribution structures, manufacturing and supply agreements, software and technology contracts, and other transactions involving Venezuelan operations and international counterparties. He also advises on foreign-exchange and investment-related regulatory matters affecting the execution of cross-border business.

Ramón’s corporate practice is complemented by experience in energy and infrastructure matters, including investment structures, joint ventures, crude-oil purchase arrangements and financing structures for energy and petrochemical projects. He also has experience in alternative dispute resolution, having acted as counsel in commercial and investment arbitration matters and as sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator in domestic arbitration proceedings. This disputes experience informs his transactional work, particularly in the design of risk allocation, dispute-resolution mechanisms and investment-protection structures.

Across his practice, Ramón combines Venezuelan market knowledge with an international transactional perspective, with a particular emphasis on commercially workable structures, regulatory execution and long-term protection of client investments.

Ramón has more than three decades of experience advising multinational companies and investors on Venezuelan and cross-border business matters. Before the establishment of WDA Legal, he practised in Caracas and Miami with Squire Sanders & Dempsey, formerly Steel Hector & Davis, where he became a partner in the Corporate Transactions, Finance and Governance practice. Earlier in his career, he worked with Collier, Shannon, Rill & Scott in Washington, D.C. He also teaches Corporate Law in the Graduate Specialization in Corporate Law at Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.

International Associate, American Bar Association (ABA); member of the Caracas Bar Association, the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce (VenAmCham), the Venezuelan Colombian Chamber of Economic Integration (CAVECOL), and the Venezuelan Spanish Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CAVESPA); member of the rosters of arbitrators of the Business Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (CEDCA) and the Arbitration Center of the Caracas Chamber of Commerce (CACC).

Author. Azpúrua Núñez, Ramón A. “The Integrity Frontier: Compliance as a Strategic Asset in Venezuela’s New Energy Era” (WDA Legal, 2026).

Author & Coordinator. Azpúrua Núñez, Ramón A. et al. “Introduction to Investing in Venezuela: A Legal Perspective” (WDA Legal, 2025).

Representative experience includes advising on cross-border corporate restructurings and investment structures spanning multiple jurisdictions; counselling a multinational oil company on spot crude-oil purchases and joint-venture arrangements with Venezuela’s national oil company; leading internal corporate investigations involving anti-corruption, conflicts of interest and business ethics; advising multinational organisations on compliance programme design and implementation; representing national and international clients in investment arbitration proceedings before ICSID and the PCA; and serving as sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator in domestic commercial arbitrations.

Representative experience includes advising multinational companies and investor groups on cross-border restructurings, acquisitions, divestments and joint ventures; structuring energy and petrochemical investments, financings and crude-oil arrangements; leading corporate compliance investigations and designing anti-corruption and business-ethics programmes; acting as counsel and arbitrator in investment and commercial arbitration proceedings; and coordinating cross-border financing and compensation structures across Latin America and the Caribbean. His transactional experience also includes technology licensing, distribution, manufacturing and other complex commercial arrangements involving Venezuelan operations and international counterparties.

Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB)

Law Degree (Abogado), Valedictorian

1987 - 1992

New York University School of Law (NYU)

LL.M. in Corporation Law

1995 - 1996

Energy and Oil & Gas; Banking and Financial Services; Insurance and Reinsurance; Telecommunications; Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals; Technology; Infrastructure and Real Estate; Manufacturing and Consumer Goods.

Venezuela; cross-border matters involving the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.