Mr. de la Cabada is a proud graduate of Florida State University for both his undergraduate and JD. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991 and is also licensed to practice in all three federal courts in Florida. He has had his own practice since 1999, specializing in criminal defense, compliance law and strategy for corporations, and licensing/regulatory cases against some professionals including attorneys before the Florida Bar.
He has been used as an expert in financial crimes by the U.S. Department of Treasury in order to help the Dominican Republic rewrite its money laundering laws.
He is a life member for both the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. For a FACDL he has been a part of the legislative committee. For NADCL, he has had the privilege of serving on the board of directors from 2012 through 2018, and is part of the White Collar Crime Committee where he has worked on sentencing recommendations sent to the Sentencing Commission.
He served on the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions for Criminal Cases, and while there authored or collaborated on the drafting of jury instructions on many types of crimes including but not limited to Money Laundering, Mortgage Fraud, Communications Fraud and Organized Scheme to Defraud.
He also served for approximately 10 years on behalf of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce as a member of the Juvenile Justice Board for the 11th Circuit of Florida.
He was selected as vice-chair and chair of a grievance committee of the Florida Bar.
He has been asked to be a part of a Blue Ribbon Panel chosen by the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS)(formerly named the Florida Department of Insurance) to review and rewrite laws regarding bondsmen.
He has provided expert commentary on criminal issues for CNN en Espanol, Telemundo, Univision and BBC International.
He started his legal career as a prosecutor for the State of Florida first at the Office of the State Attorney in Lee County where he prosecuted all kind of misdemeanor and felony crimes. He later worked for the Office of Statewide Prosecution in Tallahassee where he prosecuted multi-circuit fraud crimes, lectured and trained agents from multiple law enforcement agencies, served as a legal adviser to the Statewide Grand Jury and obtained indictments under that capacity, and as a lobbyist for Department of Legal Affairs and the Attorney General’s Office.
He has had the privilege of teaching at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida; and at Edison Community College in Fort Myers, Florida.
He has been honored eleven years in a row (2009-2019) by Florida Trend Magazine as one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Florida in its Legal Elite issue.
