Keynote Introduction

Fernando A. Bohorquez, Jr. is a recently minted equity litigation partner with Baker & Hostetler LLP’s New York office.  He is the youngest Latino equity partner in the nationwide 700 strong attorney law firm and the only minority equity partner in the New York office.  Fernando’s practice concentrates in the areas of complex commercial and intellectual property litigation and he has represented various Fortune 500 companies in state and federal court on contractual disputes, business tort litigations, and false advertising and unfair competition cases. He currently leads several litigation teams working on behalf of the SIPC Trustee in Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, most notably the high profile action against the New York Mets. Fernando also played an instrumental role in the firm’s representation of a former high-ranking FBI official in the landmark Supreme Court case of Iqbal v. Ashcroft.  Fernando is on the LatinoJustice PRLDEF board, where he focuses on building the pipeline for the next generation of Hispanic leaders and lawyers and was recognized as one of MillerCoors Lideres of 2010 for his efforts. Among his many other community commitments, he serves on the boards of the Limon Dance Foundation, the Fund for Modern Courts, and holds leadership positions in the NY State Bar Association, the NY Chapters of the Hispanic  National  Bar Association and the American Constitution Society and is a Council of Urban Professionals fellow. He has represented immigrants pro-bono through the NY City Bar and organized Spanish-speaking attorneys to volunteer for Latino voter protection efforts nationwide. Fernando is on Baker’s Diversity Committee and spearheaded the NY office’s mentor committee and minority summer internship program. He dedicates hours to mentoring Latino law students, including those from his alma mater New York Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude, who honored him for his contributions to the Latino legal community.   Prior to joining Baker, Fernando clerked for the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and was a fellow at the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center where he earned an LL. M.  Fernando was recently named by the HNBA as one of the Top Lawyers under 40.