Jose A. “Pepe” Villalobos of Akerman has been selected to receive FFLA’s 2025 Medal of Honor Award for a Lawyer, and Maria Henderson, a consultant with Akerman, will receive the Medal of Honor Award for a Non-Lawyer. The Medal of Honor is FFLA’s highest honor. Lesley Mendoza, who is the executive director of CABA Pro Bono Legal Services, will receive the 2025 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award.
The Medal of Honor Award, sponsored by Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, is presented each year to a member of The Florida Bar who has demonstrated his or her dedication to the objectives of The Florida Bar as set out in the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar “to inculcate in its members the principles of duty and service to the public, to improve the administration of justice, and to advance the science of jurisprudence.” The Medal of Honor may also be awarded to a member of the public or a lawyer not actively engaged in the practice of law who has made outstanding achievements in improving the administration of justice in Florida.
Jose A. “Pepe” Villalobos, Esq.
Jose A. “Pepe” Villalobos, Esq., an attorney with Akerman in Miami, is being honored with the Medal of Honor Award for a Lawyer for his exceptional legal acumen, dedication to justice, and advocacy for higher education and judicial diversity, which has left a lasting impact on the South Florida community and the legal profession.
“It is without reservation that the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA) hereby nominates its esteemed member and past president Jose A. Villalobos for the 2025 Medal of Honor Award,” wrote Amanda L. Fernandez, Esq., President of CABA, in her nomination of Villalobos. “As impressive as his day-to-day professional practice is, the basis for this nomination is Pepe’s exceptional, life-long service and steadfast commitment to the betterment of the legal profession and greater community.”
Villalobos, who will celebrate 50 years of legal practice this June, graduated from the Universidad Catolica Santo Tomas de Villanueva Law School in Havana, Cuba in 1959. His graduation coincided with Fidel Castro’s rise to power. Faced with the requirement to pledge allegiance to the Castro regime to be sworn in before the Cuban Supreme Court, Villalobos refused and chose exile in the United States rather than compromise his principles.
Upon arriving in the United States, Villalobos supported his family through various occupations—as a longshoreman, farm laborer, freight loader, roofer, lecturer and journalist of international affairs. Determined to rebuild his legal career, he enrolled at Biscayne College and obtained a bachelor’s degree while simultaneously participating in a newly approved program by the Florida Supreme Court for Cuban lawyers at the University of Forida. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1976.
Throughout his career, Villalobos has served the public through numerous pro bono positions and programs. During Florida Governor Bob Graham’s administration, Villalobos was appointed to the Marketable Record Title Act Commission, where millions of acres of state lands and public funds were protected. Governor Graham also enlisted his help in securing state and local business leaders for trade missions to Latin America and appointed him to the Judicial Nominating Committee. As chair, Villalobos championed diversity in the judiciary, successfully advocating for the nomination of female, Black, and Hispanic judges to the bench.
During Governor Lawton Chiles’ administration, Villalobos drafted a comprehensive treatise on Economic Development for the State of Florida. Previously, when Chiles was elected to the U.S. Senate, he appointed Villalobos to be a member and chair of the selection committee that recommended candidates to U.S. Military Academies.
“At a time when social division was at its peak, Pepe unsurprisingly emerged as a masterful bridge-builder, serving as Vice Chair of Miami-Dade County’s Community Relations Board to help heal deep-seated racial and ethnic divisions,” noted Fernandez. “Through his service and leadership, he systemically shattered false narratives of conflict between the Hispanic and Black minority communities while also championing unprecedented diversity in the judiciary.”
When the Cuban boatlift crisis of the Mariel flotilla brought some 2,000 parentless, unaccompanied children to Florida’s shores in 1980, Villalobos volunteered his time to provide pro bono legal representation for hundreds of the newly arrived minor children. His efforts earned the recommendation of the Chief Juvenile Administrative Judge, Hon. Seymour Gelber, to be awarded The Florida Bar’s Pro Bono award.
Villalobos’ volunteer efforts span outside of the legal world into both education and health. He was instrumental in advancing education in Florida, volunteering to assist securing funding in Washington, D.C. for Florida International University. As Chair of Kendall Regional Hospital, his contributions helped to establish a state-of-the-art trauma center, specialized burn unit, and emergency helipad innovations that saved countless lives and redefined healthcare standards.
“Pepe has admirably volunteered countless hours to improving the administration of justice from both an individual level of client representation as well as playing a role in the promulgation of fair adjudication and advocacy on an institutional level,” Fernandez wrote.
Throughout his career, Villalobos has served as a professional mentor to countless attorneys and leaders in the community, acting as a critical nexus for both the steadfast continuity of the profession’s legal principles and an advocate of advancement for the betterment of the community’s legal minds.
Villalobos has been recognized professionally many times, including by a Florida Bar Certificate of Merit for the Second Conference of Lawyers of the Americas; a Miami-Dade County Commission Proclamation of “Pepe’s Day” on September 18, 2019; with “For the Love of Law” recognition by the University of Florida; with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cuban American Bar Association; and by the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society’s Legal Legend Award.
“I bore witness to countless public officials, judges, organizations and individuals reaching out to Pepe for him to help right a wrong, raise others up, garner respect and dignity for persons, and gather a slice of the American dream across racial, gender and ethnic lines,” said retired Chief Judge Joseph P. Farina in a letter supporting Villalobos’ nomination. “Pepe dedicated his enormous talent, fortitude and perseverance, without compensation, spending thousands of hours broadening composition of our community while expanding his family of friends.”
Maria Henderson
Maria Henderson, a consultant at Akerman LLP in Jacksonville, has been selected to receive FFLA’s 2025 Medal of Honor Award for a Non-Lawyer. Henderson is being recognized for her unwavering dedication to increasing access to justice for the vulnerable and her exceptional contributions as a non-lawyer advocate, making a transformative impact on pro bono efforts and Florida’s legal community.
“For decades, Maria Henderson has been devoted to helping the vulnerable,” wrote Gina DelChiaro, Partner and Director of Pro Bono Initiatives at Akerman, in her nomination of Henderson. “This is not her full-time job, but it has been high on her list of priorities for such a long time, and it is central to who she is.”
Henderson, who has more than two decades of experience in the property and casualty insurance sector, began her career in banking, in the areas of operations research and corporate marketing. She graduated with a degree in math and physics from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in information management from American University. She gained invaluable experience working at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., where she and a fellow colleague developed an automated system to evaluate bank mergers and acquisition market effects.
At Akerman, Henderson works with insurance companies and self-insured companies to navigate complex regulatory issues and create effective and compliant operations solutions. She also provides critical business support to Akerman’s Pro Bono Initiative, with a focus on communications and marketing, and increasing recruitment of the firm’s lawyers to do more pro bono work.
“For more than five years, not a single week has gone by when Maria has not done work on a pro bono matter or for the Pro Bono Initiative,” said DelChiaro.
In 2024, Henderson helped lead a team to a litigation win for a client fleeing persecution and seeking protection in the United States. Over the course of five years, she donated her project management skills to steer the legal team, managing the task list, ensuring regular team meetings, and staying in regular contact with the client.
“I was totally devastated and all alone,” the client wrote in a letter supporting Henderson’s nomination. “Maria has been my source of information and support since I first came to America. She would always find the best information that I needed and share it with me in an understandable way. But she also did work on my case, helping find witnesses and other evidence for my case.”
Maria exemplifies the value that a non-lawyer can add to the litigation process – maintaining evidence logs and timelines, reviewing documents for factual consistency and being a trusted confidant of the client. She devoted more than 200 pro bono hours to the case and even traveled to meet with the client in person, funding the travel cost out of her own pocket.
Henderson has worked on a variety of other pro bono matters, including veterans clinics and other projects for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and other legal services organizations.
From 2004 to 2014, Maria served on The Florida Bar Foundation’s board, chairing grant committees and the Finance and Audit committee, and eventually lead the organization as its first non-lawyer president in 2012-13. She received the Foundation’s President’s Award for Excellence in 2008 for her steadfast and enthusiastic support of the mission of the Foundation, and the clarity and strength of her convictions.
She was also a member of Florida Legal Services’ Capital Campaign Committee and served on the Board of Trustees of The Tampa Museum of Art, and The Florida Bar’s Second Judicial Circuit’s Grievance Committee.
Henderson also provided financial support in 2019 through seed funding for The Hon. William A. Van Nortwick Jr. Impact for Justice Fund, honoring her late husband, which provided Southern Legal Counsel with legal resources, national experts, litigation expenses and needed technology to provide high-quality representation.
“Financial support like what Maria has provided every year is critical in helping Southern Legal Counsel ensure that those with the least power, such as low-income children, people with disabilities and older adults, have a critical line of defense in safeguarding their most basic rights,” said Jodi Siegel, executive director of Southern Legal Counsel, in a letter supporting Henderson’s nomination.
“Access to justice requires more than just lawyers,” wrote DelChiaro. “Maria Henderson is the embodiment of how crucial non-lawyers can be, and how they change and save lives.”
Lesley Mendoza, Esq.
Lesley Mendoza, Executive Director of CABA Pro Bono Legal Services, has been selected to receive FFLA’s 2025 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award for her zealous advocacy of clients in need, innovative ideas for providing services to those in need of pro bono attorneys and dedication to legal aid in Florida.
The Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual who, over his or her career, has achieved meaningful, effective and lasting increases in access to civil justice for the poor in Florida.
Mendoza, born in Miami to Cuban immigrants and raised in Hialeah, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, then earned her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 2002. Before joining CABA Pro Bono Legal Services, she worked for White & Case in New York as part of the firm’s commercial litigation practice group.
“Lesley has always exhibited a passion for helping others,” wrote Johnathan Padilla, Associate Attorney at Perkins Law Offices, in his nomination of Mendoza. “While she knew that law was her calling, it was her Public Interest Law class at the University of Miami that showed her that she could merge her passions of law and service into one.”
Mendoza joined CABA Pro Bono Legal Services as its executive director in 2013 and has transformed the organization through her innovative leadership. In 2014, she was instrumental in developing a plan to recruit South Florida lawyers to staff immigration courtrooms to expand representation for unaccompanied minors, which led to her recognition by the Daily Business Review as the “Most Effective Lawyer in the Area of Pro Bono.”
Under Mendoza’s leadership, the organization has expanded to represent a greater number of individuals and has developed programs focused on human trafficking victim representation, domestic violence victim representation, immigrant children, providing attorneys ad litem for foster children, veterans, and legal assistance for neurodivergent persons. She has grown CABA’s staff from four to 29.
She has been recognized for her advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations, being named Child Welfare Professional of the Month in 2017 by Florida Foster Care Review’s Citizen Review Panel for her exceptional representation of a young adult in extended foster care.
“She was a strong and effective advocate for her client, communicating clear information about his short and long-term interests and needs. Despite the many obstacles and challenges in her client’s path, Ms. Mendoza showed an unwavering, genuine belief in his potential,” stated the panel.
Mendoza has led CABA Pro Bono Legal Services’ efforts to expand its domestic violence program and increase accessibility of legal services to underserved communities throughout South Florida. Mendoza has spearheaded growing CABA’s immigrant children program, last year providing holistic representation for more than 1,000 children.
“Mrs. Mendoza makes it a point to become involved with her clients and ensure that they are receiving the help that they need, no matter what type of help that is,” Padilla emphasized. “Experienced firsthand, Mrs. Mendoza’s clients’ lives are forever changed. She remains in continuous contact with them and will drop everything for them in a moment’s notice and truly becomes invested in their accomplishments and progression in life.”
Mendoza has also overseen CABA’s recent efforts to recruit more pro bono attorneys, including hiring dedicated staff and expanding services to include citizenship clinics, alternatives to guardianship for neurodiverse individuals, supported decision making and advance directives for the elderly.
As executive director, Mendoza also leads efforts to secure crucial funding and support for legal aid in Tallahassee and organizing fundraisers to expand CABA Pro Bono’s reach and impact.
“In short, there is no limit to the civil justice that Mrs. Mendoza has provided and will provide to the less fortunate,” wrote Padilla. “Mrs. Mendoza has helped transform the lives of many individuals by advocating for them both in and out of the courthouse. Mrs. Mendoza truly exhibits the letter and character of the Jane Curran Award and will continue to do so throughout her legal career.”
FFLA will present the Medal of Honor Awards, the Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award and other honors at its award ceremony and breakfast at The Boca Raton on June 26 during The Florida Bar Annual Convention. Tickets are available at https://fundingfla.org/tickets/.
