Eduardo C. Robreno

In 1961, when he was just 15 years old, Eduardo C. Robreno fled his native Cuba because he was afraid of being jailed for his anti-Castro views. Raised by foster parents in Florida and Massachusetts, he grew up to become the first Cuban American on any federal court and the first Latino on the federal bench in Pennsylvania. He started his career as a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, then practiced for 11 years with two Philadelphia law firms in the area of commercial litigation, including bankruptcy, real estate, construction, unfair trade practices, libel, labor, and administrative law. Robreno now sits on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and is one of the nation’s leading Latino jurists. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Rutgers’ School of Law–Camden. He founded and is a past board member of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania, and has been a fellow of the American Law Institute. In 2000, the Rutgers Black Law Students Association awarded him the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Champions for Social Justice and Equality Award.