Julio E. "Rick" Mendoza, Jr.

Rick Mendoza is an experienced creditors’ rights and bankruptcy law attorney. He has dedicated 40 years to this area of practice and is a Board Certified Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Law Specialist in South Carolina since 1993. He served on the Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Law Advisory Board for the State of South Carolina (1992 – 1996; 2008 – 2014; Chairman 2012 – 2015). 

Rick was admitted in 2016 as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary public service association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals who are invited to join as Fellows based on a proven record of the highest standards of professionalism plus service to the profession and their communities.  He also serves on the Board of the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation (2022 – present).

In December 2020, Rick received the J. Bratton Davis Professionalism Award from the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association. It is the highest award of the SCBLA, and it is not given annually. Although Rick feels humbled by the award, he is deeply honored and appreciative to have received it.

Rick also is a Master of the Bench Member of the J. Bratton Davis Bankruptcy American Inn of Court, and he formerly served as its President. This American Inn of Court was formed to preserve and pass on the standards of civility and professionalism set by the Honorable J. Bratton Davis, long-time Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina. It also seeks to provide mentorship to younger attorneys and attorneys new to the practice of bankruptcy law in the South Carolina Bankruptcy Court, and to promote diversity in the South Carolina Bankruptcy Bar.

Rick has long standing connections to the South Carolina community, receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina College of Business Administration and his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he has served as an adjunct professor. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina (Chair 2015 – 2016), and also on the Board of Trustees for the S.C. Center for Fathers and Families (Chair 2012 – 2013).

Rick was the 2012 and 2016 “Lawyer of the Year” (Best Lawyers in America) for Columbia, and named to Best Lawyers in America, for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law from 2001 through the present.

Community & Professional

• Fellow, American College of Bankruptcy (2016–present)
• Member of the Board of the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation (2022- present)
• Master of the Bench Member, J. Bratton Davis Bankruptcy American Inn of Court (2018-present; President 2018-2020)
• Member of the Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Law Specialization Advisory Board, State of South Carolina (1992–1996; 2008–2014; Chairman 2012-2014)
• Member of Board of Trustees for the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina (2010–2018, and 2020 - present; Chair 2015–2016)
• Member of Board of Trustees for the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families (2010–present; Chair 2012–2013)
• Member of the Bankruptcy Local Rules Advisory Committee for the District of South Carolina (1994–1995; 2003–2006; Chairman 2003–2006)
• South Carolina Bar
• South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association (Board of Directors, 1992–1993, 1998–1999)
• Richland County Bar Association

Recognition

• Martindale-Hubbell "AV" Preeminent Peer Review Rated

• A Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy (2016–present)
• Member, Board of Trustees of the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation
• Master of the Bench Member, J. Bratton Davis Bankruptcy American Inn of Court (2018-present; President 2018-2020)

• Certified Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Law Specialist, State of South Carolina 1993–present

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law (2001-present)

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year” in Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law for Columbia S.C. (2012, 2016, 2025) and in Insolvency and Reorganization Law (2025)

• Included in the South Carolina Super Lawyers list in the area of Bankruptcy and Business Litigation 2008-2018, 2024 (“Top 10” in South Carolina 2010; “Top 25” in South Carolina 2012 and 2014)

• Bratton Davis Professionalism Award, South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association, 2020.
• Matthew J. Perry Civility Award, Richland County Bar Association, 2015
• William E.S. Robinson Public Service Award for the Meritorious Advancement of the Practice of Bankruptcy Law, South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association, 1999
• Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year, South Carolina Bar Association, 1998
• Adjunct Professor of Law, University of South Carolina School of Law, 1995
• "Legal Elite of the Midlands", Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights

Seminar Presentations 

• Mendoza was a co-presenter with J. Ronald Jones, Jr. of Smith Debnam Narron Drake Saintsburg & Myers LLP, for the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association 2022 Annual Seminar program, “Timeshares and Bankruptcy: A Successful Failure (The Case of Sand Castle South Timeshare Owners Association, Inc.),” March 13, 2022, Asheville, North Carolina.
• Mendoza was a co-presenter with the Honorable John E. Waites, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of South Carolina; the Honorable Grace E. Robson, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida (at the time, of Markowitz Ringel Trusty & Hartog); Leon S. Jones of Jones & Walden, LLC; and Daniel J. Reynolds, Jr. of McCarthy, Reynolds & Penn, LLC; for the American Bankruptcy Institute 2019 Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop program, “Individual Chapter 11 – Taking Your Client Through Plan Confirmation,” Amelia Island, Florida, July 19, 2019.

• Mendoza was a co-presenter with George B. Cauthen of Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, LLP, for the seminar program “Chapter 11 ‘Plan’ning: Drafting, Objecting, and Tools You Never Thought to Use,” South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association 26th Annual Seminar, April 29 - May 1, 2016, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

• Mr. Mendoza, George Scott and Judge John T. Laney, III, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Georgia also discussed Stern v. Marshall at a Consumer and Business Bankruptcy Seminar in November, 2011.  The seminar was co-sponsored by the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Continuing Legal Education.
• Mr. Mendoza was a co-presenter with George Scott at the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association meeting in November, 2011, “Unsettled, or Unsettling, Law? A Review of Bankruptcy Jurisdiction Following Stern v. Marshall.”