Meet Marlon Hill

23 Sep Meet Marlon Hill

Posted at 20:09h in Marlon Hill News by

Hi Marlon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I first came to the United States from Jamaica as a teenager in 1985. It was a challenging transition. With the help of a solid support system from my new immigrant family, my high school at Miami Southridge, my local soccer team and the Catholic Church, I was able to adjust and settle in reasonably well. With a partial scholarship to Florida State University, I ventured to Tallahassee to study International Business & Finance with a minor in Spanish. At FSU, I excelled primarily with the vibrant Caribbean and Black student support organizations. It was an enjoyable college enjoyment. While at FSU, I also had the opportunity to travel to study in Costa Rica for an extended semester and live with a small rural Costa Rican family. Upon completing studies at FSU, life took a turn when Hurricane Andrew destroyed My hometown of South Miami Dade. I decided to stay in Tallahassee for law school.

After finishing law school in 1995, I returned home without a full time job. Like any resourceful new immigrant, I juggled three part-time jobs before I landed my first real job in Coconut Grove with the law firm of Adorno & Zeder. It was a rewarding opportunity to learn and grow as a young lawyer. In addition to garnering baseline skills in a wide scope of legal work in corporate, real estate and government law, I also had the unique opportunity to be a representative for the firm on community engagement matters. This opened many doors.

After a solid tenure at the firm, in 2001, I decided to take a new challenge with my high school friend, Michelle Delancy, is starting our own law firm, named Delancyhill, P.A. We wrote a plan, contributed a part of savings, and turned on the phones hoping for them to ring.

Our local community rallied to support us more than we expected. Michelle handled the litigation and finances. I handled the business transactions and marketing for the firm. At our peak, we had six lawyers associated with us. We thrived for a firm our size. In 2009, with the economic recession, we decided to relinquish our office lease a d take the firm virtual. It saved our firm from folding and allowed us to operate more efficiently. Who knew that we would be doing the same 12 years later in our profession.

In 2015, Michelle and I made a strategic move to merge our firm with colleagues at Hamilton, Miller & Birthisel, LLP another black owned firm in Miami. Given the small group of Black owned firms in South Florida, it was a headliner announcement.

After a five year collaboration, Michelle pursued a longstanding goal of joining the local judicial bench and I pursued an open seat on the County Commission. Michelle won her seat without opposition and I, despite a competitive race, fell short of the runoff with a couple hundred votes.

A new opportunity was on the horizon. I joined the reputable law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman to continue my practice in corporate and government law. Today, this is where I continue to make my mark.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have realized that my success in growing up and working in Miami has primarily been attributed to certain level of cultural fearlessness where one has to be bold enough to be willing step out of your own cultural comfort zone.

Miami is town of cultural silos and you must be willing to break through without an invitation. The doors are not always widely opened.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a business lawyer, my passion is to assist family owned companies, entrepreneurs, artists, nonprofit organization to realize their desired potential and goals through my provided legal strategy and advocacy. I revel in seeing my clients leave a legacy in their bank accounts and also to leave a impactful footprint on the community they do business. I love helping to build companies or organizations from inception of the idea and brand, through development of the corporate governance or career, through the growth years and planning for exit or succession phases.

We all have a life cycle and they are most successful when there is a strategic plan for the long journey.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The quality I feel that has contributed to my success is being a cultural and resourceful connector within our multicultural community. It has provided me with a bottomless support system.

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