Eric A. Hernandez is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer. His practice focuses on complex civil rights, commercial, consumer class action, products liability, labor/employment, whistleblower, and white-collar criminal defense matters.
Mr. Hernandez’s years of litigating matters through trial and appeal in both the private and public sectors enable him to provide pragmatic solutions and recover meaningful relief for his clients.
Prior Experience
Prior to founding the firm, Mr. Hernandez served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice in the Southern District of Florida—one of the largest United States Attorney’s offices and busiest trial districts in the United States.
As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Hernandez handled numerous grand jury investigations and trials in the areas of money laundering, export/import fraud, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, tax fraud, healthcare fraud, identity fraud, cybercrime, child pornography, immigration fraud, human trafficking, wire fraud and embezzlement, fraud involving government contracts, international and national narcotics trafficking, firearms and explosives, terrorism, public corruption, and violent crimes, including armed robberies, bank robberies, and home invasions. Mr. Hernandez also briefed and argued several appellate matters before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and received several published opinions in favor of the United States.
Prior to his service with the federal government, Mr. Hernandez served as an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney at the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office. As an Assistant County Attorney, Mr. Hernandez was the trial attorney on numerous litigation matters as well as the in-house counsel on a plethora of regulatory and transactional matters. He represented numerous County departments, including the Board of County Commissioners, the Mayor and Manager, the Property Appraiser and Tax Collector, the Finance Department, the Supervisor of Elections, the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Regulation, the Port of Miami, Miami International Airport, Jackson Memorial Hospital/the Public Health Trust, and the Department of Film and Entertainment. Mr. Hernandez managed a wide variety of civil cases and trials in federal and state court, including tort/wrongful death cases, tax cases, commercial cases, section 1983 civil rights cases, employment cases (Title VII, ADEA, and ADA), municipal bond cases, and high-profile constitutional/county charter litigation.
Mr. Hernandez drafted appellate briefs and conducted several oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Florida Third District Court of Appeal. He also drafted appellate briefs to the Florida Supreme Court. Mr. Hernandez received several published opinions in the County’s favor on legal issues of first impression.
While at the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office, Mr. Hernandez handled numerous high-profile and complex matters, including the case of Braman v. Miami-Dade County and the Florida Marlins, where a billionaire businessman challenged the County’s ability to implement a multi-billion dollar large-scale redevelopment project that included the construction of a baseball stadium, tunnels to the Port of Miami, the Miami Art Museum, further development of the Performing Arts Center, and the funding of community redevelopment agencies. After Mr. Hernandez successfully tried this matter under intense media scrutiny, the Daily Business Review selected Mr. Hernandez as a Finalist for the “Most Effective Lawyer Award” in the field of Commercial Litigation.
Clerkships
Mr. Hernandez began his career by clerking for Chief Justice Charles T. Wells of the Florida Supreme Court and United States Magistrate Judge Patrick A. White. While clerking, Mr. Hernandez worked on important contract, tort, and other statutory civil matters, including the Bush v. Gore presidential election cases, state political redistricting/reapportionment cases, death penalty litigation, and United States and Florida constitutional law cases.
Education
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, New York (J.D. 2000)
Articles Editor, Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution
St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York (B.A., Double Major, 1997)
Bar Admissions
Florida
United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
United States Tax Court
United States Supreme Court
Judicial Clerkship
Law Clerk, Chief Justice Charles T. Wells, Florida Supreme Court
Law Clerk, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick A. White, Southern District of Florida
Professional/ Community Involvement
Former Chair, Third District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission
Former Director, Switchboard Miami
Former Director, Dade County Bar Association
Former Director, Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association
Member, Dominican-American Bar Association
Member, Hispanic National Bar Association
Member, Federal Bar Association
Member, American Bar Association
Member, Caribbean Bar Association
Professional Recognition
Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Publication
Florida Trend’s Legal Elite
Finalist, Most Effective Lawyer, Commercial Litigation, Florida Daily Business Review, 2009
Seminars
Former Legal Research and Writing Lecturer, University of Miami School of Law
Former Assistant Legal Writing Lecturer, Florida A & M University
Publications
Mandatory Arbitration and Employment Discrimination: The Unfair Law, Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (2001).
Languages
Spanish