Also a legal scholar and professor, he was rector of the American College University and the author of four books on the laws governing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nicaragua.

[3][5] Herdocia did not belong to a political party and advocated for the nonpartisan retention of "a nucleus of officials" to preserve the continuity of territorial policy.

[2] In his role with the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, Herdocia also worked on the creation of the Central American Integration System (SICA), established in 1993,[5] developed from the 1991 Protocol of Tegucigalpa which he helped draft.

[9][4] In his work with SICA, he also contributed to drafting and negotiating other major accords such as the 1995 Framework Treaty on Democratic Security in Central America.

[2] In 2016, he told La Prensa that the history of external incursions Nicaragua has faced motivated his career in international law: "I felt there was a need to work and structure the strengthening of legal knowledge to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.

Herdocia's thesis was cited in a landmark 2012 ICJ ruling [Es] establishing Nicaraguan sovereignty over a maritime shelf extending over 180,000 square kilometers.

[9] In 2018, Herdocia was an advisor to the Episcopal Conference of Catholic bishops during the National Dialogue that followed the anti-government protests and repression by the Ortega government.