Press Release

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of our founder, Juan Manuel Pellerano Gómez, this past Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 at age 91, due to natural causes, in the peace of his home surrounded by his family, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Dr. Pellerano Gómez was a constitutional scholar, author of books and specialized publications, university professor, teacher and mentor of generations of lawyers, widely recognized by the national and international legal community.

Two years after graduating and becoming a Doctor of Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, he founded our law firm, Pellerano & Herrera, in 1952, and since then worked as a notable litigator, expert in business and financial law, among other specialties.

During his long career he introduced innovations in legal practice that have represented milestones for the advancement of the legal profession in the Dominican Republic. His contributions to the legal community and to the intellectual life have been the reason for the highest national and international recognitions, granted by the national and international legal community, the academic community and the Dominican State.

His colleagues and disciples qualified Dr. Pellerano Gómez as "the most complete lawyer in the Dominican Republic", "the lawyer of lawyers" and "the leading expert on constitutional law" in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Pellerano Gómez was one of the authors and promoters of many laws that sustain the dynamic of different business sectors, life in community and the defense of the fundamental rights of citizens in our country.

He participated in the drafting of the law that created the savings and loans system of the Dominican Republic, the legal framework that promoted living in condominiums and introduced the Constitutional Remedy to the Dominican legal system, as a way to protect constitutional rights, and was one of the authors of the first statutes of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo.

Among his works are "La Guía del Abogado", "Constitución y Política", "La Constitución como Norma Jurídica", “Constitución, Interpretación e Inconstitucionalidad”, “Control Judicial de la Constitucionalidad”, and other books and articles in specialized publications. In addition, he was the founder of the first publisher specializing in legal publications in the Dominican Republic, Capeldom, to promote the intellectual work of other lawyers.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of different companies and civil society organizations, academic member of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic, the first executive director of the National School of Judges, institution that forms and trains judges in the country, and Legal Advisor of the Executive Power from 1982-1986.
The teaching community recognized him as an honorary professor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña and an honorary professor at the Universidad Nordestana.

Among the public honors Dr. Juan Manuel Pellerano Gómez received can be highlighted by the "Reconocimiento Caballero de la Órden al Mérito Duarte, Sánchez y Mella", which is the most prestigious recognition granted by the Dominican State, and is conferred to honor the distinguished service to our nation by the President of the Dominican Republic.

Chambers and Partners, widely renowned international publisher of the legal industry, honored him in 2010 with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” recognizing his extensive and remarkable career. His colleagues and fellow students also honored him with the publication in his honor of a Liber Amicorum on constitutional matters.