Cesar L. Alvarez

Cesar L. Alvarez is a Miami-based Cuban-American attorney and Senior Chairman of Greenberg Traurig, one of the ten largest law firms in the United States. He emigrated from Cuba with his family in 1960, at 13, without speaking English.

He earned an associate degree from Miami Dade College in 1967, then a bachelor's degree, an MBA and a law degree (with highest honors, 1972) from the University of Florida. He practiced securities, corporate and international law for more than 25 years before becoming Greenberg Traurig's CEO in 1997, a post he held for 13 years. During that time the firm grew from 325 lawyers in eight offices to roughly 1,850 professionals in more than 36 locations across the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. He later served as the firm's Executive Chairman for more than three years.

He has chaired the boards of United Way of Miami-Dade and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science and serves as a trustee of Florida International University. In 2026 the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce named him recipient of its Sand in My Shoes Award, its top community leadership honor.