Evian White De Leon, J.D. ’10, credits Miami Law’s hands-on training for her success as COO and Chief Legal Counsel at the MIAMI Association of REALTORS®. She cites the Children & Youth Law Clinic and HOPE Public Interest Resource Center as transformative, teaching her to "think out of the box" while providing deep mentorship. As a student, she helped launch Alternative Spring Breaks and volunteered with the Immigration Clinic on TPS cases following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. White De Leon now returns to this ecosystem as an adjunct professor, leading a unique general counsel practicum.
What aspects of the curriculum or faculty had the most significant impact on your legal education and career trajectory?
The Children & Youth Law Clinic (professors Bernard Perlmutter and Kele Stewart) and the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center (dean Marni Lennon) had the most impact on my legal education and career trajectory. The curriculum and faculty are amazing. But the magic really happened when that was paired with deep mentorship and real-world experiences. CYLC and HOPE also encouraged and empowered us to be creative, which was a rare and wonderful gift so early in my career. CYLC taught me to think out of the box—even though clients would come in with legal problems, the solutions often needed to reach beyond the law. HOPE gave me the freedom to create—together, we launched Alternative Spring Breaks for law students to volunteer during spring break. In my time, we volunteered in Guatemala and here at Miami Law’s Immigration Clinic on TPS immigration cases for Haitian clients after the 2010 earthquake.
How did your education at the University of Miami School of Law prepare you for your career?
The hands-on, practical experiences at the University of Miami School of Law best prepared me for my career – there is a reason it is called the practice of law. Learning, very early on in my legal career, about how to handle cases (and clients) outside of a textbook has been the foundation for all of my professional successes. The Litigation Skills course, the Children & Youth Law Clinic, and the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center all embody that. Miami Law does not just offer these experiences – the faculty and staff supporting these experiences are excellent and are the elite practitioners in our Miami community who are invested in the next generation of lawyers here. These are the building blocks for any law student’s career – whether it is here in Miami or beyond.
What opportunities or connections did you gain at the law school, and how did they influence your career?
One of the most impactful programs at the law school was HOPE Public Interest Resource Center. Under the leadership of Dean Marni Lennon, HOPE not only offers summer scholarships for public interest placements, but it also serves as a hub to make meaningful connections between students, public interest lawyers, and organizations throughout Miami, the country, and internationally. Those opportunities shaped my career. I spent my 1L summer at Legal Services of Greater Miami as a HOPE Fellow, which blossomed into other law clerk opportunities, and eventually my first job after graduation. In the 2+ years as a law clerk and 7 years as an attorney with Legal Services of Greater Miami, I gained invaluable experience as a trial attorney, advocate, and community lawyer, which has been embedded in all of my work since then. With HOPE, I also volunteered on a pro bono case that went to oral argument before the Florida Supreme Court.
