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Meet Our Partner, Eric J. Hager | Part 1

I would trace my interest in the law back to high school. When I was getting ready to go to high school I switched from my town’s public school to a local Catholic school and while that was a rather big change and the school had its faults like any other school.

What I really remember is that it fostered critical thinking. We are constantly analyzing, debating, and discussing some of the more difficult issues of the day. When you think of it, that’s really what a lawyer does. We’re always looking at both sides of an issue. You need to understand your clients’ side and your clients’ arguments but you also need to understand the other side’s arguments to be able to rebut your opponent.

I would certainly look back at my high school years as the seed that led me to be interested in the law and becoming a lawyer. I went to law school in New York and after that, I went to work for a national law firm in Washington, D.C for about three years. That was pretty common for my classmates to go to a big law firm but then about three years in I received an offer to join Conrad and Scherer’s office in Quito, Ecuador. I immediately accepted it, and 12 years have gone by since I’ve been working in Quito, Ecuador. That’s not really a common career path for lawyers as you might be able to imagine. I’ve been really lucky that the whole time I’ve been able to work on complex civil litigation matters but not in the typical way that most lawyers do.

I represent clients from Latin America who are involved in litigation in U.S courts. I spent a lot of time traveling around Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru meeting with clients in often very remote places.

Some of those trips turned out to be rather adventurous, but while I was doing a different fieldwork type of work, I was always working in complex civil litigation as well. I continued to work with my colleagues based in Florida and based elsewhere.

I think if you look at my career path, I have in a way, the best of both worlds. I have this rather uncommon experience of working throughout Latin America combined with a more traditional background in civil litigation in state and federal courts around the country. I think it’s that dual experience, that mix of experiences, that sets me apart from other people who practice the type of law that I practice.