About
First Name:
Last Name:
Title and Organization:
Bio:
Willy Ferrer is a Partner at the law offices of Holland & Knight. Previously, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 2010-2017. Prior to this, he was Chief of the Federal Litigation Section at the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office. Willy began his career as an attorney at the Miami offices of Steel, Hector, and Davis working on civil litigation matters and pro bono civil rights cases, and as a clerk for the Hon. Judge Stanley Marcus of the U.S. Southern District of Florida. In 1994, he was selected to be a White House Fellow serving as Special Assistant to Secretary Henry Cisneros in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Within a year, he went to work at the Department of Justice as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney General. In February 1999, he was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff to Attorney General Janet Reno. Before moving to Washington, he served as a Director of the "Bridge of Young Cuban-American Professionals" where he aided in the re-settlement and integration of refugees in the Miami area. In addition, he helped found various organizations in Miami to aid teenage runaways and address dropout rates and racial strife. In 1984, he received a Silver Knight Outstanding Community Service Award (honorable mention) from the Miami Herald. Willy graduated first in his class, summa cum laude, from the University of Miami, and in 1990 earned a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he continues to serve as one of the youngest members to the School's Alumni Board of Managers. He and his wife Adabel and their two children live in Miami. Willy is a 2000 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Fellowship Program
Class
