It’s an early Tuesday morning on the University of Miami Medical Campus, and on the 10th floor of the UHealth Fitness and Wellness Center, personal trainer Rashawn Cobourne is instructing one of his clients in how to perform the perfect squat, encouraging her to keep her feet shoulder width apart and her back straight.
The client completes a set of 10 repetitions before moving on to sets of leg curls and calf raises. Then, the hour-long weight-training session ends.
For Cobourne, however, the ‘heavy lifting’ is just starting.
For much of the rest of the day, he would bury his nose in a book, reading not about new techniques to train a client but about constitutional law, civil procedure, torts, and other areas of the legal profession.
Cobourne is a third-year University of Miami School of Law student who will graduate this spring semester, fulfilling a goal he set for himself long before he arrived on the Coral Gables Campus.
His path to law school and to the eventual career as a legal eagle that awaits him began in his native New York City, where, after graduating from the State University of New York at Old Westbury, he pursued justice for victims of domestic violence while working as a paralegal in the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
A stint as a New York State court officer would follow, and it was during that time that Cobourne experienced a watershed moment in his life. In the aftermath of the George Floyd murder and protests, he realized that he could no longer ignore the desire that burned within him to serve and uplift his community.
“By wearing a badge, was I making a difference or was I just another cog in a wheel?” Cobourne recalled asking himself. “So, I decided to invest in my career.”
And that meant enrolling in law school.
“Working in a district attorney’s office and later as a court officer, I realized that the one profession to which I was exposed the most was the law,” Cobourne said. “Most of the attorneys I observed were not Black. So, seeing a lawyer in a courtroom who looked like me became a huge inspiration to enter and succeed in that field.”
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During his time at the School of Law, he has clerked for private law firms in the Greater Miami area and served as a judicial intern for Judge Jacqueline Becerra of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, conducting legal research on civil and criminal matters, providing legal analyses, and observing court proceedings.
He most recently completed an externship in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, serving as a law clerk in the Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division.
In recognition of his commitment to justice and community engagement, Cobourne was awarded the Judge Marcia G. Cooke Public Interest Scholarship, which honors the life and legacy of the first Black female federal district judge in Florida who passed away two years ago.
For Cobourne, who played baseball at SUNY Old Westbury, his role as a personal trainer at UHealth Fitness and Wellness is “more than just a side job,” he said. “It’s therapy. I get tremendous joy from motivating people and helping them reach their personal fitness goals.”
The attributes he employs as a personal trainer will benefit him as an attorney, he believes. “Both involve people skills,” Cobourne said. “Each client is different, so you must get to know them on a personal level.”
The School of Law has afforded him unparalleled opportunities to succeed. “The mentorship from faculty members has been extraordinary,” he said. “It will go a long way in helping my career.”
