April 2025: Ryan Ulloa is a Commercial Litigation partner in Miami. He reflects on his career to-date, the importance of keeping an open mind and his advice for associates who want to make partner.

Say yes to new opportunities...
As a junior associate, I had a very specific idea of what kind of lawyer I wanted to be, and I was pretty stubborn about making that happen. A few happenstance interactions with different partners led me off that path to try different things, notably arbitration and different kinds of dispute work.

I realized that I could get the same sort of satisfaction and enjoyment from this work too; that what I had thought was the only path for me, was only one of many. This experience opened up new areas of the Firm to me, new areas of the law that I'd been so determined to ignore.

... and to building new skills
As an example, I spent the first part of my career in federal and appellate courts. I did a lot of writing, and I was focused on building up my trial skills. After being exposed to commercial arbitrations, I learned that they allowed me to use my writing and advocacy skills in a different venue. In fact, commercial arbitrations often skipped to the substantive adversary part of trial work by dispensing with much of the pageantry required in court.

So, for instance, for many arbitrations, you skip direct examinations, you skip your formal admission of evidence, and you jump right into cross-examinations and get to the heart of the matter in dispute. These shorter hearings were paired with robust written submissions before and after the hearing. I realized I had unlocked a whole new facet to my career.

Get to know your own Firm
One of the most useful things that I learned was how to navigate this Firm, its resources and opportunities. The advantage of a global firm is that one area is always busy, no matter where we are in the economic cycle. There is also so much knowledge here, from my fellow partners to our talented associates and business service professionals and colleagues around the world.

I have a global career in my home town
I was always committed to living in Miami, but the fact that the Firm has eight US offices plus our global network means that I get to work for clients around the world. Most recently, that has included disputes with connections to Latin America, Europe and Africa. Even when I'm working from the Miami office, I'm connected to our clients and colleagues around the world.

It's important that your partner in life is pulling in the same direction
My family life is very important to me, but I'm not always the dad that can be home for dinner every night. Sometimes work comes first. But I make sure to balance those long nights with extra quality time when my workload is lighter. My wife and I are aligned on the big picture, and she supports me when I can't be present. With rare exception, I try to never miss my family's biggest moments, like a school play or awards ceremony—I'll simply work late or early to meet the demands of our profession.

Making partner isn't the final destination
It's the start of another path. In addition to your client work, you take on new roles and responsibilities, from recruitment to training to business development. It's new terrain, and there's plenty still to learn. For me, there was a recalibration once I made partner—it's a definite milestone, but hopefully one of many more in your career.

I pay it forward as a mentor
I'm a first-generation American and the first lawyer in my family. The lawyers that I met along the way, who took the time to talk with me and explain their work, were an enormous help. As a result, I like to help junior lawyers wherever I can—from formal mentoring programs to just taking the time to mentor junior members of my teams or recent alumni from my law school.

Being a lawyer is fundamentally about teamwork
To deliver the excellent service that we expect, I'm constantly relying on the people around me to perform at a high level. That sort of performance isn't born overnight or created when you need it. It requires investment into my team's training and development long before. Hopefully some of them will be my fellow partners someday, and the rest will be friends and colleagues for many years. A happy team is a more productive one too.