PBCHBA program explores the intersection of law, culture, and community in Puerto Rico

For a group of Florida attorneys, continuing legal education in Puerto Rico meant more than sitting through lectures.

It meant entering the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico for a discussion with U.S. District Judge Silvia L. Carreño-Coll, examining a legal system shaped by both civil-law and common-law traditions, visiting Puerto Rico’s Capitol, and learning from attorneys with firsthand experience practicing within the island’s legal and cultural landscape.

The experience was part of the inaugural "CLE in Paradise: Bridging Jurisdictions, Culture & Community," presented by the Palm Beach County Hispanic Bar Association (PBCHBA) July 22-26 in Puerto Rico. The program was held at El Conquistador Resort.

The program was built around a premise increasingly relevant to Florida lawyers: Understanding the law sometimes requires understanding the history, institutions, and culture that shaped it.

“CLE in Paradise was created to do more than provide continuing legal education — we wanted to create meaningful connections between lawyers, legal institutions, and communities across jurisdictions,” said Angie Pagán, president of the Palm Beach County Hispanic Bar Association. “Puerto Rico was an ideal setting for this inaugural program because of the deep connections between our communities and its distinctive legal and cultural history. The opportunity to learn from Puerto Rico’s attorneys and institutions while experiencing the culture that surrounds them brought our theme of bridging jurisdictions, culture and community to life.”

Learning inside Puerto Rico’s federal court

One of the program’s central experiences took participants inside the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, where Judge Carreño-Coll welcomed the delegation for an educational discussion on federal court practice and the judiciary’s perspective.

Carreño-Coll has served as a U.S. district judge since 2020 after serving as a U.S. magistrate judge from 2011 to 2020. Her career also includes service as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Puerto Rico and associate regional counsel with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The courthouse visit gave participants insight into federal advocacy and procedure, judicial expectations, professionalism, local practice, and the distinctions attorneys may encounter when working outside their home jurisdiction.

“You can read about another legal system, but there is a different level of understanding that comes from entering its institutions and learning directly from the judges and attorneys who work within them,” said Sonia Muñoz Gallagher, a PBCHBA board member and CLE presenter. “Comparative legal education challenges us to recognize that what feels familiar in our own practice is not necessarily universal. That perspective makes us more thoughtful lawyers and better equipped to serve clients whose lives, families, and businesses cross jurisdictions.”

Two legal traditions, deep connections to Florida

Puerto Rico provided a significant setting for cross-jurisdictional legal education because of the character of its legal system.

Puerto Rico is a mixed jurisdiction where civil-law and common-law traditions interact, making the island a unique setting for examining how history, legal tradition, and American federalism can converge within a single jurisdiction.

For Florida attorneys, those distinctions are more than academic.

Florida and Puerto Rico are connected through families, businesses, property ownership, migration, and professional relationships. A Florida lawyer may represent a client whose family history, property, business interests, or legal affairs extend to Puerto Rico even when the attorney’s practice is based entirely in Florida.

Understanding another jurisdiction requires more than learning a different rule or statute. It requires recognizing how legal traditions, terminology, institutions, history, and culture shape the way clients experience the law.

That was a central theme of the conference.

Participants also visited El Capitolio, home to Puerto Rico’s legislative branch, as part of the broader exploration of the island’s governmental, constitutional, and legal framework. The visit was educational in nature, allowing participants to experience another key institution within Puerto Rico’s civic structure.

Culture as part of legal competence

The conference intentionally connected substantive legal education with cultural experience, organizers said.

Puerto Rico was not simply the destination where the CLE occurred. Its legal traditions, attorneys, institutions, history, and culture became part of the educational experience.

For lawyers increasingly representing clients whose lives extend across geographic, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, that distinction matters.

Cultural understanding can influence communication, trust, assumptions about family and property, approaches to conflict, and the way clients understand legal institutions. Comparative law also encourages attorneys to examine why different systems reach different solutions — and, in doing so, think more critically about their own.

The program brought together Florida and Puerto Rico legal perspectives through continuing legal education, institutional visits, professional exchange, and cultural experiences while creating relationships among attorneys who may encounter cross-jurisdictional issues in their practices.

That combination reflected the conference’s title, "Bridging Jurisdictions, Culture & Community."