"It’s something that gets swept under the rug because clients don’t want their attorneys to have mental health or substance abuse issues."
For four years in the 1980s, Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr. studied hard at the University of Miami. His Cuban immigrant family didn’t have generational wealth, so he felt the pressure of making his college experience matter, graduating with a degree in finance and quickly finding work as a credit analyst at a bank.
But when he considered what it would look like to have a career he actually loved, he thought back to his time in civics class at his Miami high school, Belen Jesuit Preparatory.
“I want to do something positive every day,” he told the Miami Herald.
Sanchez-Medina took a risk and pivoted, going to law school and starting a new career as an attorney. This summer, the Coral Gables-based lawyer was named president of the Florida Bar Association. In Florida, any attorney wanting to practice law has to be a member of the Florida Bar, and Sanchez-Medina aims to hold every one of the more than 112,000 members to a high standard.
But in addition to enforcing discipline for indiscretions, he also wants members dealing with mental health stressors to feel supported.
Read more at the Miami Herald