Luis Santos has a unique understanding of the administrative and legal challenges faced by clients in industries like hospitality, retail, restaurant, and grocery.
Prior to attending law school, Luis worked for many years in hospitality management. He began as a front desk clerk and worked himself up to the position of assistant hotel manager. Luis also worked as a grocery store cashier. After becoming a lawyer, he set out to utilize this insider's perspective to continue helping companies in the hospitality and grocery industries with their employment-related issues.
As co-chair of FordHarrison's Wage and Hour and Restaurant Practice Groups, Luis has extensive experience addressing the challenges faced by employers in this industry. Additionally, Luis represents employers in a wide variety of industries beyond hospitality and grocery, including transportation, healthcare, and insurance; handling wage and hour disputes, discrimination claims, union avoidance, regulatory compliance, and all other facets of employment law.
Luis can fluently speak, read, and write in Spanish. He often uses his bilingual skills to train and educate Hispanic management and staff in their native language. Luis also serves as FordHarrison's Deputy Diversity Partner and Orlando Office Managing Partner and is focused on recruiting and mentoring diverse attorneys with a particular emphasis on Hispanic outreach.
Luis is the son of migrant parents and the first in his family to attend college. Through his childhood experiences, he developed a great appreciation for hard work and an understanding of the importance of education. During law school, Luis was an American Bar Association Merit Scholarship recipient. He was also a Moot Court board member and a member of the Diversity Committee. While on Moot Court, Luis participated in the Seventh Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot, winning the Best Respondent Memorandum and receiving an Honorable Mention for Best Oral Advocate. He also served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Judge Covington-Hernandez, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. In addition, Luis served as the Secretary for Stetson University's Hispanic Bar Association, Vice-President of the Part-Time Student Society, and a member of Phi Delta Phi Honor Society.