Reno Pierre to lead the Young Lawyers Division
Reno Pierre: ‘The YLD does a great job in putting together CLEs and basic skills courses that help to bridge the gap for our young lawyers to effectively serve their clients.’
Reno Pierre starts with gratitude.
“I’m incredibly honored to have been elected president-elect designate of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division,” he said. “It’s an extremely remarkable opportunity to serve alongside some great and talented young lawyers throughout the state of Florida that serve on our Board of Governors.”
Pierre, an assistant county attorney at the Broward County Attorney’s Office where he primarily handles real estate, real property, housing, and finance cases, notes his election also has “some historical significance,” as it is the first in the past four cycles to proceed unopposed, he says, and because he is the first Black male president-elect designate in the history of the YLD.
Attributing his election victory to hard work, his extensive record of service supports his assertion. Part of that work is co-chairing the YLD’s 2025 Affiliate Outreach Conference, scheduled for February 7-8 in Orlando. As a member of the YLD, he has also acted as treasurer and chair of the Budget Committee, chaired the Awards Committee, and served as a member of the Law School Affiliates and CLE committees.
“I’ve actually worked with every single committee on the YLD BOG,” he says. “Over the last few years since I joined the board, I’ve worked extremely hard serving young lawyers throughout the state of Florida,” said Pierre.
In addition to his service with the YLD, Pierre actively works with several community outreach, charitable, volunteer, pro bono, and leadership initiatives with local organizations, among which are the Broward County Bar Association, TJ Reddick Bar Association, and the Haitian Lawyers Association. He volunteers with community programs for food insecurity and youths in the juvenile justice system, as well as immigration clinics, literacy efforts, a foster care program, and CLE events, according to his candidate website, which also introduces his ideas for what he wants to accomplish with the YLD.
Getting government lawyers more involved in the YLD is at the top of his list; as a government lawyer, he keenly understands the advantages to involvement. He credits mentors with “planting the seeds” of YLD involvement as he was leaving the state attorney’s office to join the Broward County Attorney’s Office.
“When I started off as a criminal prosecutor those first two years, I didn’t know what the YLD was,” he said. “I barely knew what a voluntary bar organization was because I was just in a silo, in a bubble. My life consisted of going to the courtroom and to my office.”
Pierre also wants to launch a YLD “Lunch and Learn” series for CLE credits.
“The YLD does a great job in putting together CLEs and basic skills courses that help to bridge the gap for our young lawyers to effectively serve their clients,” said Pierre, noting he sees opportunities to offer greater support to new attorneys.
“Many of my colleagues who are younger lawyers come into it not with much exposure to [contracts]. In law school, we have organizations like moot court and mock trial, which help you in trial settings, but there’s very few resources that help you in law school to become a real estate attorney and hit the ground running.”
While working as an assistant state attorney, Pierre attended the University of Miami School of Law earning his LL.M. in Real Property Development, giving him personalized training and real-world transactional experience that placed him at an advantage coming into his current role. It can take a year to a year and a half for new real estate attorneys to get up to speed, he said.
“Learning what it takes to effectively negotiate for your client and draft these agreements, whether a lease agreement or a license agreement — or any other sort of property-related document,” is a focus for new real estate lawyers, he said.
In addition to promoting YLD involvement with government attorneys and initiating a “Lunch and Learn” program for CLEs, Pierre’s goals are to bolster engagement with law students and raise the profile of the YLD’s programs and initiatives through increased marketing efforts.
Pierre knew he wanted to be an attorney from a young age, fascinated by shows like Matlock and Law and Order, and the courtroom coverage on Court TV.
“Growing up, I had a burning passion to be a lawyer…. It has been a passion of mine since I was young to give back and serve my community.”
He credits his parents, saying they told him, “You have but so many options, which is to be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant or an engineer.” He jokes, “I definitely wasn’t good at math and science, so I said, ‘I guess my only choice is to be a lawyer.’”
Perhaps the ultimate deciding factor that pulled him into law was professional success that did not quite satisfy his aspirations and ultimately showed him that he had room for growth. Before law school, Pierre had a marketing business in South Florida and put together concerts with popular artists.
“I did one concert in particular at the University of Miami where we had almost 9,000 attendees, so it was very successful…. [But] I was getting killed in those contract negotiations. I wanted to better hone my negotiating skills and be able to negotiate a bit better with some of the deals,” he said.
While at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Pierre discovered he had an affinity for real estate law — “it was probably my best course,” he said. He interned with the Broward County Attorney’s Office and knew he wanted to return after graduation.
Within the profession, he has now found his sweet spot negotiating real estate deals on a day-to-day basis at the Broward County Attorney’s Office.
Pierre also interned for recently retired 17th Circuit Judge Robert W. Lee while at UF.
“I absolutely love Judge Lee. He also swore me in once I passed the bar and became an attorney,” he said.
“I learned so much during that summer with Judge Lee…. He always said, ‘Reno, I want you to be the most prepared attorney. You’re here for the entire summer, you’re seeing many of these arguments are won by who is the most prepared.’ That stuck with me throughout my journey, in law school and as I practice law now; preparation is key. And once you match hard work with preparation, you’re onto something. You strike fire right there!” Pierre says with a smile in his voice. “That was the biggest takeaway.”
