Super Lawyers - Florida 2016

PRO BONO
Spotlight on service
It was 1970. Fidel Castro was more than a decade into
his tenure, Cold War tensions between the U.S. and
Cuba were high, and the new political landscape was
prompting hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee
their homeland. One of those was Juan Enjamio, who
was 10 years old and spoke no English.

“We left as part of what were called the ‘freedom
flights,’ where you were allowed to leave after apply-
ing and being sponsored by someone in the U.S.,”
says Enjamio, an employment defense attorney and
managing partner at Hunton & Williams’ Miami
office. “It was my first time in a plane. I was excited,
but at the same time sad because I was leaving
behind all of my friends.”
His dad had owned a cafeteria in Cuba, but it was
confiscated by the Castro government. “My parents
didn’t want us growing up in a communist system.
They wanted to make a life in the United States,”
Enjamio says. “Neither of my parents went to col-
lege, neither graduated from high school, but they
Now Enjamio is dedicated to helping other first-
generation college students get their start. “A lot of
times, talented young people don’t go to law school
for two reasons: One is financial, two is that they
didn’t grow up in families that have lawyers, so they
don’t know a lot about the profession,” he says.

Having experienced both challenges himself, Enjamio signed his firm up right from the start with the First Generation Scholarship Program, started in 2013 by Dean Alex Acosta at Florida International University College of Law. The scholarship provides

Juan Enjamio
EMPLOYMENT
& LABOR
HUNTON & WILLIAMS
MIAMI
Giving Back by Paying It Forward
Juan Enjamio helps fund a scholarship program for
first-generation law students BY TREVOR KUPFER
regardless of race or social background—who com-
pose nearly half the law school’s student body.

“As part of the legal community, we think diver-
sity in the profession is very important, and to give
opportunities to minorities to go to law school,”
says Enjamio, who helped open his firm’s Miami of-
fice in 1999. Enjamio is also involved in mentoring
minority law students. “It’s important to reach out
to that group of individuals and say, ‘Hey, we’re go-
ing to help you,’ not only financially but also with
mentoring. … When you have people with different
viewpoints and experiences, you enrich the whole.”
Enjamio himself relied on scholarships to get
through law school. Now he guides his firm in
returning the favor by contributing significantly to
the scholarship program every year. Enjamio also
contributes personally to a similar undergraduate
program at University of Florida, where he serves
on the alumni association. And at the University
of Miami School of Law, his other alma mater, he
serves in the Center for Ethics and Public Policy.

“It’s important that there are financial resources
available to students at any school,” he says, “and it’s
important that the legal profession continues to try to
be diverse. And the only way to do that is continuing
to attract good, quality, diverse student bodies.”
At FIU, firms typically contribute enough to cover
half or full tuition for one student, and the school
matches it. Since the public law school opened in
2002, its rankings for clerkships and job success
have “accelerated at lightning speed for a school
this recent,” says Acosta, former U.S. attorney for
the Southern District of Florida and a first-genera-
tion lawyer himself.

In-state tuition for FIU law students is $21,400 per year for the day program and $14,500 for the part-time program at night. Acosta estimates the program has raised $300,000 so far, and annual pledges going forward are already at nearly $150,000. The number of firms donating to the FIU scholarship has jumped from two, at the beginning, to about 20.

“Often, to gain success when you start something, you need to have one or two people come to the table early,” Acosta says. “The big movers behind this were Juan [Enjamio] and Cesar Alvarez [from Greenberg Traurig], and with their commitment and support, I was then able to go to colleagues at other firms.”