Professor Ramírez was born and raised in McAllen, Texas, to parents who always encouraged him to pursue higher education and his love of teaching.  His passion for teaching has earned him a reputation as an exceptional instructor among colleagues across the Texas Tech University campus and across the globe.  He is a past recipient of the “Chancellor's Council Distinguished Teaching Award,” which is the highest teaching award bestowed within the Texas Tech University System; and he received the prestigious “Person of the Year” award from Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania for his teaching and scholarly contributions to that institution.

Professor Ramírez received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Harvard College and his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he earned a position as an editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.   

His career experiences include work in law, government and business, as well as academics.  After earning his degree in Economics, but prior to returning to Harvard for his law studies, Professor Ramirez worked as a Marketing Representative for IBM.  Following law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Homer Thornberry, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and followed that service by practicing in three areas of the legal profession: commercial litigation, poverty law, and non-profit law. He first practiced as a commercial litigator with the firm of Susman Godfrey LLP in Houston, focusing on issues involving breach of contract, fraud, and anti-competitive behavior. Three years later, he accepted an offer from Texas Rural Legal Aid to become managing attorney for the Farm Worker Health and Safety Project in Weslaco, Texas, where he initiated and managed environmental and occupational safety litigation for indigent clients injured throughout the United States. In 1996, Professor Ramírez became executive director of the Texas Democratic Party and later served as acting general counsel. He started teaching at Texas Tech in the year 2000.

Professor Ramírez managed the international programs at the law school from 2000-2016, serving as Associate Dean for International Programs from 2012-2016, and successfully implementing the multi-organizational approval process for the law school's first Master of Laws (LLM) program. 

His current teaching and research focuses on international law, and he is a highly sought-after lecturer.  He has taught dozens of international law courses or seminars in the countries of Bolivia, China, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Lithuania and Mexico.  In addition, he has created, administered and/or taught summer and semester abroad programs for Texas Tech in Denmark, France, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico and Spain.  He has also traveled in a professional capacity to the countries of Brazil, China, England, France, Germany and Switzerland, where he had the opportunity to meet with foreign colleagues to address issues of legal and business education. 

In January of 2007, he was one of seven members of the Texas Lyceum Association (a statewide leadership organization) to be invited by the Central Party School (“CPS”) of the Communist Party of China to participate in an educational and cultural exchange program. The CPS serves as the Communist Party's ideological research institute and as the main training program for cadres slated for senior posts. Among other things, Ramirez participated in discussions with CPS leaders in both Beijing and Shenzhen, the first city in China to experiment with capitalism. In May of 2006, he was selected as one of five professionals to travel to Brazil as a participant in a Group Study Exchange Program ("GSP") sponsored by the International Rotary Foundation. The GSP provides participants with an opportunity to meet with colleagues in Brazil to discuss opportunities for collaboration, study and research. Professor Ramirez also participated in the "American Swiss Foundation Young Leaders Conference" held in Ermatingen, Switzerland in May, 2005. Participants in the Conference are nominated by prominent American and Swiss citizens and provide the next generation of leaders in Switzerland and the U.S. an opportunity to develop a deeper awareness of the other's perspective. The bipartisan group of fifty participants (half American and half Swiss) is selected on the basis of outstanding professional and personal achievement.

The United States military invited Professor Ramírez to teach a number of seminars on Humanitarian Law at various Bolivian military academies in that South American country as part of a cooperative agreement between the two countries.

Most recently, he was invited to teach a series of seminars on public international law to graduate law students at the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, China.

Professor Ramírez serves as an editor of the Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, a joint publication of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy and the Faculty of Law of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania; and he's been the recipient of a number of awards recognizing his contributions to Texas Tech University including the Global Vision Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018, the Law School Faculty Service Award for 2011, the Faculty Distinguished Leadership Award for 2011, the Professor of the Year Award from the Hispanic Law Students Association for 2008-09, the President's Excellence in Teaching Award for 2006, Texas Tech College of Education Teaching Award in 2005, and the Texas Tech Alumni Association's New Faculty Award for 2002.

Professor Ramírez is admitted to practice in Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Western Districts of Texas.  He was elected as a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation in 2017, one of the highest honors bestowed upon a member of the State Bar of Texas.