Group names attorney Eduardo Rodriguez as one of Texas' best

Brownsville attorney Eduardo Roberto Rodriguez has tried hundreds of cases in the court of South Texas in his 42-year career.

He has not always won ("if you have never lost a case, then you haven’t tried very many," he says) but he has won a lot – enough that the Texas Lawyer newspaper has named him one the 25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century.

He is one of two attorneys in the Rio Grande Valley to receive the honor. The other was Weslaco’s David G. Hall, executive direc-tor of the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

In naming Rodriguez to the prestigious list, Texas Lawyer described him as a “fearless litigator.”

The magazine staff chose the attorneys from more than 475 nominations, searching for candidates who have made outstanding contributions in their fields during the 25 years since the publication was established.

"I was very ecstatic. I felt very proud," Rodriguez, 66, said of the honor. “I have been blessed in being able to be a lawyer. I have had the good fortune of doing what I love to do and not realizing it until I started doing it.”

A native of Edinburg, Rodriguez earned his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968 and began practicing in Brownsville as an associate with Hardy & Sharp, becoming a partner with the firm shortly thereafter.

But at one time he teetered between attending law school and joining the Foreign Service.

“I cannot say anything specifically attracted me into law. But I knew that with a law degree, I could apply to do anything,” he said.

In addition to his work as a litigator, he served as the president of the State Bar of Texas from 2005-2006 and is a member of a number of distinguished legal organizations, including the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates. The Texas Appleseed Foundation recognized him in 2007 with the Good Apple Award for his pro bono work.

Before all of this – before law school even – Rodriguez worked as an elevator operator in the U.S. Capitol in Washington to help pay for his undergraduate studies at George Washington University from 1961 to 1965. The experience, which has been featured in the Texas Bar Journal and The Brownsville Herald, put him near the front lines of one most tumultuous times in American politics.

He remembers riding with President Lyndon Johnston, actor Charlton Heston and Speaker of the House John McCormack to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech during the famous March on Washington in August 1963.

He would return to the Valley and develop one of Brownsville’s most successful law firms, Rodriguez, Colvin, Chaney & Seaenz LLP. He has stepped down from that firm and since last year has served as attorney of counsel for Rodriguez & Nicolas LLP, the firm of his son Michael, 42, and where another son, Patrick, 39, also works.

Rodriguez says he has no plans to retire from the practice of law.

“It has not been work for me,” he said. “It has been fun.”