Biography – Hon. Sigfrido Steidel Figueroa

Administrative Director

In 1992, Sigfrido Steidel Figueroa obtained a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (with a major in Political Science) from the University of Puerto Rico. In 1995, he obtained a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where he graduated with honors (magna cum laude). During his last year of law school, he was assistant editor of the University of Puerto Rico Law Review.

From 1995 to 1996, he worked at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals (known at the time as the Circuit Court of Appeals) as law clerk to the Hon. Gilberto Gierbolini. Subsequently, he worked at the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico as a law clerk to the Hon. Federico Hernández Denton and later clerked for the Chief Justice José A. Andréu García. From 1999 to 2004, Steidel Figueroa was also executive director of the Board of Bar Examiners. As of 2004, served as Special Aide to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Federico Hernández Denton, until 2007.

Steidel Figueroa he has collaborated with various working committees of the Supreme Court, including the Strategic Planning Committee of the Judicial Branch from 2007 to 2011 and the Committee for the Revision of the Canons of Judicial Ethics created in 2003. He has taught at the Puerto Rico Judicial Academy and offered courses at several universities in Puerto Rico. He has worked as an adjunct professor at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico School of Law since 2003, offering courses in Research, Analysis and Writing I and II; Civil Procedure; Civil Procedure Seminar; and Special Civil Proceedings. He has also taught the Civil Litigation and Professional Responsibility courses at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.

Since 2005, he has been the national coordinator of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit, and in 2006 he was elected as member of the Ibero-American Commission of Judicial Ethics for a four-year term, which position he held until 2010. At present, he is coordinator of the Coordination and Monitoring Commission of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit.

He has been a member of Puerto Rico Judicial Branch since 2004, first as a superior court judge (2004-2013) and since 2013, as a judge on the Court of Appeals. In September 2016, he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez, as Administrative Director of the Courts of Puerto Rico.

He has authored several works and journal articles on legal topics, including judicial ethics and civil procedure, that have been published in Puerto Rico and abroad. His book, Ética para juristas: ética y responsabilidad disciplinaria del abogado (“Ethics for Jurists: Ethics and Disciplinary Responsibility of an Attorney”), published in 2010, received the Best Legal Publication of the Year Award from the Puerto Rico Bar Association. He published a revised version of this work in 2016 under the title Ética del abogado y responsabilidad disciplinaria (“Attorney Ethics and Disciplinary Responsibility”). He has given lectures and conferences on judicial and professional ethics, among other topics, in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Guatemala. He has also offered seminars on civil procedure, judicial ethics, and professional ethics through professional training programs in Puerto Rico.