R. A. Cuevas, Jr., the County Attorney, joined the County Attorney’s Office in June 1970.  Mr. Cuevas previously served as First Assistant County Attorney, and he has led many of the Office’s practice groups, including the Tax, Eminent Domain, Transit and Commercial sections.  Mr. Cuevas is experienced as a litigator and as a transactional lawyer. 

As a litigator, Mr. Cuevas has practiced extensively in federal and state court at both trial and appellate levels.  He tried numerous cases involving such issues as the County’s authority to build a tennis stadium for the NASDAQ 100 Tennis Tournament at Crandon Park, and whether the United States Government had the ability to change a record of decision to convey former Homestead Air Force Base to the County for public airport usage.  Mr. Cuevas has also handled numerous appeals, including cases before the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Cuevas is a well-respected transactional lawyer.  Between 1978 and 1984, Mr. Cuevas worked on Stage One of the Rapid Transit Project.  That one and a half billion dollar Project included construction of Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail and Metromover, and Mr. Cuevas handled nearly all of the related land acquisitions through purchases and eminent domain actions.  Mr. Cuevas also handled the Project’s single largest land acquisition, which was approximately 12 miles of the former Florida East Coast Railway right-of-way from downtown to Dadeland, an acquisition that cost approximately 21 million dollars.   

Mr. Cuevas is a former member and chair of the Legal Affairs/13(c) Committee of the American Public Transportation Association.  The Committee is comprised of lawyers representing all of the transit properties in the United States, as well as those from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (currently the Federal Transit Administration) of the United States Department of Transportation. 

From 1994 to 2005, Mr. Cuevas led the Office’s Commercial practice.  That section handles all of the County’s contracts, leases, procurement, bid protests, and construction litigation. 

Mr. Cuevas received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Florida in 1967.  In 1970, he earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida College of Law.  He is a member of the Florida Bar, and he is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.  Mr. Cuevas has earned an AV peer review rating on Martindale-Hubbell.  That rating indicates that Mr. Cuevas is recognized by his peers as having reached the height of excellence, skill and integrity in the legal profession.

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