During the past three decades, Hank Adorno has worked with or matched wits against some of the great minds in Miami’s legal community. Now that he has become one of the greats, he is passing along the essence of what he has learned to the young lawyers of his firm.

Hank Adorno

"I was taught early on in my legal career that you have to give back," Adorno said. "Both Dan Paul and Parker Thompson were very good about instilling in the young lawyers in their firm that you had an obligation to give back to the community. I try to do that and I try to instill that same concept here in this law firm. I think we do a very good job in that regard."

None would argue the point. Adorno is a founding partner in the respected Coconut Grove firm of Adorno & Zeder, serves as president, oversees a staff of 80-plus attorneys and maintains a busy practice in commercial litigation and governmental affairs. Yet, he still gives his time freely to his community.

"Over the years, I’ve spent lots of time on lots of different issues," he said. "But, if there’s an underlying cause that I try to involve myself with, it’s on issues related to kids."

In line with that, he chaired the Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond Issue for capital improvements to public parks, which the voters overwhelmingly supported in 1996. He is president of the Inner-City Games program, president of the Youth Education Town Foundation — which, along with the National Football League and the private sector, built a youth center in Liberty City, chairman of the Super Bowl Committee, is on the Orange Bowl Committee and sits on the boards of the Sylvester Cancer Center and Fairchild Tropical Garden.

"I always remember where I came from," Adorno said. "I grew up in a two-bedroom, one-bath house with a mother that had to work exceptionally hard to put food on the table and provide me with the basic necessities. I am career-wise much higher than I ever anticipated and now that I have the luxury of being in this position, I want to make sure that whenever I can, I help somebody else who may not be as fortunate."

Adorno, 51, was born in Havana, Cuba. He migrated to New York with his mother at the age of 5, but they soon moved to Miami in 1957 when she decided that she was too far from home. They settled in the Grapeland Heights area, near Miami International Airport, and Adorno began playing the games of youth.

"I grew up in the parks system," he said proudly. "I went to Citrus Grove Junior High and on to Miami High. I’m a public school graduate."

And, though he didn’t letter in any sports in his school years, Adorno professes to be an avid fan.

"I’m a sports fanatic," he said. "I’ve pretty much played them all at different stages of my life."

Adorno graduated from Miami High in 1965, went on to Miami-Dade and then the University of Florida, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1969. He followed with a law degree from UF in 1973 and there began his storied career.

"Up to the 11th grade, I think the argument would have been made that I may not have been anything," Adorno recalled. "But, once I got myself straightened out and started to make some decent grades, the law career was pretty much what I was going to do and I knew I wanted to be a trial lawyer; that I wanted to be in the courtroom."

From law school, Adorno went to work briefly with the law firm of Hyman and Creary. He said he had the privilege of working with former U.S. Attorney Bill Meadows. He left there to join the Dade State Attorney’s office, where he made his mark on Richard Gerstein’s staff of hotshot young attorneys. He was there from 1974 through 1978, assigned to the Major Crimes Division and handled some of the biggest cases of the time. He headed up the office’s Anti-Terrorist Squad and prosecuted numerous high-profile bombing cases.

"The mid-’70s were a volatile time here," Adorno recalls. "I investigated and, if a prosecution ensued, prosecuted all the terrorist bombing cases of that period."

Those headline cases included the car bombing of Cuban radio newsman Emilio Millian, the pipe bombing trial of anti-Castro activist Orlando Otero and the series of terrorist bombings by the de la Coca group. Adorno said that through it all he got to know Gerstein, the man who made one of the biggest impressions on him in life.

"Dick was the boss and I was the young prosecutor," Aorno said. "And, although we got along well, Dick and I were never close. You had to be in his inner circle. I mean, I never went out drinking with him, or visited Dick’s house, or went to the track with him.

"But, he was always very straight-up with me. When the Feds lost the Otero case — which was a very high-profile case at the time, the guy had done nine pipe bombings and everybody was nervous — I went into Dick’s office the minute that we got the word that the jury had acquitted. I had a City of Miami and a Metro detective waiting in the courthouse and I said to Dick, ‘The Feds lost. I’ve got a case and I think I can convict him. Can I arrest him?’

"He looked at me and said, ‘You think you can win it?’"

"‘Yes sir,’" I said.

"‘Arrest him,’" he said.

"And, that was it, I mean literally, it happened just like that. And that was significant exposure on his side, because if you go back and try a case like that and you end up losing it, that would have put him at political risk. But, he didn’t hesitate, he simply said ‘go do it.’"

Adorno parted with the State Attorney’s Office in 1978 to go into private practice with the law firm of two more of Dade’s legal legends, Dan Paul and Parker Thompson. But, he was soon back when Janet Reno — now the U.S. Attorney General — replaced Gerstein and called on him to be her top assistant.

"I had a much more personal relationship with Janet," Adorno said. "Janet and I were friends during the time period and, remember, I was Janet’s chief."

Under Reno, Adorno continued to prosecute the office’s high-profile cases, including a big one that he lost — the McDuffie police brutality case.

"I won big and I lost big, too," Adorno said. "But, McDuffie was a difficult case to win back then and it’s obviously been shown since that these are difficult cases to win at any given time period. Hell, they lost one in Los Angeles and they had a videotape.

"But, I got to handle most of the police cases while I was there. I got, during a seven- or eight-year period, a chance to try cases that most people would die for during a lifetime."

Adorno remained with the State Attorney’s Office until 1981, before returning to private practice again with Paul & Thompson. He worked there until 1986 and then joined with two other attorneys to found the law firm that bears his name, soon to celebrate its 13th anniversary.

Adorno is married to the former Lisa Coe, a Miami native who graduated Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School. There are eight children in the family ranging in age from 27 years to seven months. The family resides in Coral Gables and attends the Coral Gables Congregational Church.

With all his success and prestige, and the passing of so much time, does Adorno miss being a prosecutor?