John Ellsworth Rogers is an American lawyer whose practice centers on banking, corporate, and international finance, with a particular focus on Latin America. He worked in New York and built much of his career in Mexico City, first as in-house counsel for a large American bank and later with U.S. law firms that had Mexican offices.
Background
John Ellsworth Rogers was born on September 17, 1942, in Shamrock, Texas. He was the son of Theodore R. Rogers and Virginia (Harvey) Rogers.
Shamrock lies in the Texas Panhandle, a plains region in the northern part of the state where agriculture and ranching have long shaped local economies. His later education and career moved him from the Northeast to Mexico, linking the Texas origins of his family background with a professional life centered on cross-border finance.
Education
Rogers received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1965. Founded in 1636 in Massachusetts, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, and its undergraduate college has long been built on a liberal arts tradition.
He then studied at Columbia University, where he earned a Master of International Affairs in 1968 and a Juris Doctor in 1969. Columbia's School of International Affairs, established in 1946, prepared students for careers in diplomacy, international organizations, and business abroad, while Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is among the oldest law schools in the United States.
Columbia Law School also housed the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, a student-edited review founded in 1961 that publishes scholarly articles and student notes on transnational law. The journal is the venue of the 1969 article attributed to Rogers in his publication record.
Career
Rogers began his legal career as an associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York City in 1969 and remained with the firm until 1982. The firm's predecessor, Anderson, Adams & Young, opened on Wall Street in 1866, and the name Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy dated from 1962. By the time he joined, the firm was known for its corporate and banking practice and for long-standing clients including the Rockefeller family and the New York Stock Exchange. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1971.
From 1982 to 1986 Rogers served as senior counsel to the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, a large American commercial bank with international operations. He served with the bank again in 1988 and 1989, and in Mexico City from 1986 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1991. In his own professional profile he describes about eight years of in-house work for the bank in New York and Mexico City, which established the Mexican focus of his later practice.
In 1991 Rogers became a partner in the Mexico City office of Carlsmith Ball. The firm was founded in 1857 as a solo practice in Hilo, Hawaii, and is Hawaii's oldest law firm; it adopted the name Carlsmith Ball after a 1990 merger with a Los Angeles firm. In 1989, the firm had become the first U.S. law firm to establish an authorized branch office in Mexico.
Rogers was also a member of Strasburger & Price, LLP, in Mexico City. The firm was founded in 1939 and operated its Mexico City office as Strasburger & Price S.C. Later professional profiles state that he served as partner-in-charge of the Mexico City office from 2001 to 2007, helped establish the firm's New York office in 2007, rejoined the Mexico City office in 2012, and later worked as senior counsel. In 2018 the firm merged with Clark Hill, with the combined firm known as Clark Hill Strasburger in Texas.
Works
law review article
Local-Law Constraints on the Operations of Regional Development Banks
(Article published in volume 8 of the Columbia Journal of ...)
1969
Membership
Rogers belongs to several legal professional organizations. The American Bar Association, founded in 1878, is a national voluntary association of American lawyers. The New York State Bar Association, established in 1876, serves the legal profession in New York State, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, founded in 1870, is a bar association in New York City.
Within the Association of the Bar of the City of New York he chaired the committee on Inter-American Affairs from 1984 to 1986. This role connects to the inter-American legal field in which he later practiced, with a focus on Latin America.
Rogers also belongs to the Union Internationale des Avocats, an international association of lawyers, and to the Harvard Club, an alumni club for Harvard graduates, with memberships associated with New York City and Mexico City.
American Bar Association
,
United States
Chairman of the committee on Inter-American Affairs, 1984–1986
Association of the Bar of the City of New York
,
United States
Union Internationale des Avocats
New York State Bar Association
,
United States
Member in New York City and Mexico City
Harvard Club
,
United States
Interests
Tennis, theater, cinema, and photography.
Connections
Rogers married Ma Luisa Gutierrez Zamora on January 3, 1987. He is the father of Jennifer Leah, Daniel Gordon, and Andrew Leland. He is the son of Theodore R. Rogers and Virginia (Harvey) Rogers.
Father:
Theodore R. Rogers
Mother:
Virginia (Harvey) Rogers
Spouse:
Ma Luisa Gutierrez Zamora
Married on January 3, 1987.
child:
Jennifer Leah Rogers
child:
Daniel Gordon Rogers
child:
Andrew Leland Rogers
References
John E. Rogers author profile, National Law Review
Professional profile describing his practice in banking, corporate, and international matters with a focus on Latin American banks and companies, and his service as partner-in-charge of the Mexico City office from 2001 to 2007.
