FIU Law Dean R. Alexander Acosta served as the keynote speaker during the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s annual 40 Under 40 gala event. The event was held this past November and honors outstanding lawyers from around South Florida.
Dean Acosta was invited to address the crowd because his “career reflects the level of commitment and achievement that the honorees strive for,” as stated in the program.
Dean Acosta is the second dean of FIU Law and has served in this position since 2009. Prior to joining the law school he served in three presidentially-appointed, senate-confirmed positions. He was a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. He went on to be the first Hispanic to hold the rank of Assistant Attorney General. Most recently, Dean Acosta served as the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Florida, and was the longest serving U.S. Attorney in the District since the 1970s.
Dean Acosta has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine. He was named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. He serves on the Florida Innocence Commission, on the Florida Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism, on the American Bar Association’s Commission for Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities, and on the American Bar Association’s Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Education Pipeline. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented Dean Acosta with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of U.S. Century Bank.